use warnings; use strict; my $rawdata = qq| ~ItemName1~ItemName2~ItemName3~ItemName4~ItemName5~ ~Apple~Orange~Banana~Pear~Watermelon~ ~Blue~Red~Yellow~Brown~Purple~ ~Uno~Dos~Tres~Cuatro~Cinco~ |; my @datalines = grep {length} split "\n",$rawdata; my @listings; my $header; foreach my $line (@datalines) { if ($line =~ /^(.+)<\/COLUMNS>/) { $header = $1; } elsif ($line =~ /^(.+)<\/DATA>/) { push(@listings, $1); } } my %hoa; my @keys = grep {length} split '~', $header; for my $listing (@listings) { my @list = grep {length} split '~', $listing; push @{$hoa{$keys[$_]}}, $list[$_] for 0..$#keys; } print "$_ => @{$hoa{$_}}\n" for sort keys %hoa; #### ItemName1 => Apple Blue Uno ItemName2 => Orange Red Dos ItemName3 => Banana Yellow Tres ItemName4 => Pear Brown Cuatro ItemName5 => Watermelon Purple Cinco