#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Data::Dumper; my $key; my %hoa; while ( ) { my @aoa; next if (/^\s+/); if ( /^SET/ ) { my @KEY = split (/[\s:]/,$_); $key = $KEY[2]; } elsif (/^\d/) { my @INST = split(/,/,$_); push @aoa, [ @INST ]; } $hoa{$key} = [@aoa]; } print Dumper \%hoa ; __DATA__ SET: SET1 0,100,BOOK 1,150,PENCIL ==== SET: SET2 2,110,ERASER 2,200,PEN 0,220,BLACKBOARD 1,300,CHALK ==== #### $VAR1 = { 'SET1' => [ [ '0','100','BOOK'], [ '1','150','PENCIL'], ], 'SET2' => [ [ '2','110','ERASER'], [ '2','200','PEN'], [ '0','220','BLACKBOARD'], [ '1','300','CHALK'], ] };