#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my %index;
my @array;

my $headerline = <DATA>;
chomp $headerline;
$headerline =~ s/^#//;
my @header = split /:/,$headerline;
@index{@header} = (0..$#header);

while (<DATA>) {
   chomp;
   my @fields = split /:/,$_;

   for my $key (keys %index) {
      $array[$. - 1]{$key} = $fields[$index{$key}];
   }
}

# examples
print "1st name : $array[1]{'name'}\n";
print "3rd category : $array[3]{'category'}\n";

# traverse entire array
for my $row (1..$#array) {
   print "Row $row: ";
   for my $keyname (keys %index) {
      print "$keyname=$array[$row]{$keyname} ";
   }
   print "\n";
}

__DATA__
#name:surname:category
tiger:woods:golfer
tyler:hamilton:f1
james:stewart:supercross
roger:federer:tennis

##</code><code>##

1st name : tiger
3rd category : supercross
Row 1: name=tiger category=golfer surname=woods
Row 2: name=tyler category=f1 surname=hamilton
Row 3: name=james category=supercross surname=stewart
Row 4: name=roger category=tennis surname=federer