#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; #use IO::All; use Data::Dumper; my %result; for my $l () { my ($cod,$desc) = ($l =~/(\d*) (.*)/); my ($c1,$c2,$c3,$c4,$c5) = unpack ("A1 A1 A1 A1 A1",$cod); $result{$c1}{$c2}{$c3}{$c4}{$c5} .= $desc; } print Dumper \%result; __DATA__ 1 ITEM 11 Sub Item 1 111 Item X 112 Item 1121 Another Item 11212 And Another Item 12 Sub Item 2 #### $VAR1 = { '1' => { '' => { '' => { '' => { '' => 'ITEM' } } }, '1' => { '' => { '' => { '' => 'Sub Item 1' } }, '1' => { '' => { '' => 'Item X' } }, '2' => { '' => { '' => 'Item' }, '1' => { '' => 'Another Item', '2' => 'And Another Item' } } }, '2' => { '' => { '' => { '' => 'Sub Item 2' } } } } }; #### $VAR1 = { '1' => { '0' => 'ITEM', '11' => { '0' => 'Sub Item 1', 111 => 'Item X', 112 => { '0' => 'Item', '1121' => { '0' => 'Another Item', '11212' => 'And Another Item' } } }, '12' => 'Sub Item 2' } } }