while (my @X=) { foreach $_(@X) { next unless /^\w/i; push (@server, $_); ($machine, $default, $type, $connect)=split(/,/,$_); print "$machine, $default, $type, $connect"; } } #### while () { # read each line in turn to $_ next unless /^\w/i; push (@server, $_); # do you realy want this array too ? ($machine, $default, $type, $connect)=split(/,/,$_); print "$machine, $default, $type, $connect"; } } #### #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my %servers_HoA; my %servers_HoH; while () { # read each line in turn to $_ next unless /^\w/i; my ($machine, $default, $type, $connect)=split(/,/,$_); print "$machine, $default, $type, $connect"; $servers_HoA{$machine}=[$default, $type, $connect]; # or perhaps $servers_HoH{$machine}{default} = $default; $servers_HoH{$machine}{type} = $type; $servers_HoH{$machine}{connect} = $connect; } print "Hash of Arrays\n"; print Dumper(\%servers_HoA); print "\nHash of Hashes\n"; print Dumper(\%servers_HoH); __DATA__ printserver1,default,cups,cups printserver2,no,aix,rsh #### printserver1, default, cups, cups printserver2, no, aix, rsh Hash of Arrays $VAR1 = { 'printserver1' => [ 'default', 'cups', 'cups ' ], 'printserver2' => [ 'no', 'aix', 'rsh ' ] }; Hash of Hashes $VAR1 = { 'printserver1' => { 'type' => 'cups', 'default' => 'default', 'connect' => 'cups ' }, 'printserver2' => { 'type' => 'aix', 'default' => 'no', 'connect' => 'rsh ' } };