while(<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    my ($family, $people) = split /--/, $_, 2;                  #split into two: family and memebers    my @members           = split /,\s*/, $people, -1;         #split family line into an array
    foreach my $member (@members) {                            #foreach member within array
        push @{$people{$member}}, $family;                     #push into an array
        $families{$family}++;
my $total_families = scalar(keys %families);