my $s = "a,b=c,e=#f"; sub fn { "fn(@_)" } # dummy function my %result = map { /=#/ ? do { my @l = split(/=#/,$_,2); ( $l[0], fn($l[1]) ) } : /=/ ? split(/=/,$_,2) : ($_,fn($_)) } split(/,/, $s); use Data::Dumper; print "$s\n"; print Dumper \%result; #### a,b=c,e=#f $VAR1 = { 'e' => 'fn(f)', 'a' => 'fn(a)', 'b' => 'c' };