use strict; use warnings; my %mappings; while () { chomp; next if ! /\S/; s/^\s+//; s/\s+$//; my ($mainfile, $subfiles) = split /\s*,\s*/; my @subfiles = split /\s*;\s*/, $subfiles; @subfiles = grep /\S/, @subfiles; $mappings{$mainfile}{$_} = 1 for @subfiles; } # Generate transitive relationships. ie: if A->B and B->C, then A->C for my $A (keys %mappings) { for my $B (keys %{$mappings{$A}}) { ++$mappings{$A}{$_} for keys %{$mappings{$B}}; } } for my $key (keys %mappings) { print "$key - $mappings{$key}{$_} -> $_\n" for keys %{$mappings{$key}}; } __DATA__ cancer,breast cancer; lung cancer; heart cancer; stomach cancer; breast cancer,foot cancer; foot cancer,some cancer; lung cancer,blood cancer; foot cancer; heart cancer,foot cancer; stomach cancer,foot cancer; blood cancer,some cancer;