use strict; use warnings; my %dispatch = ( Job => \&job, File => \&file, Image => \&image, # Job => \&add_to_hash, # alternative to job/image subs ); my %job_details_info; my @files; foreach my $line ( 'Job line', 'File line', 'Image line' ) { # use a dispatch table if( $line =~ m/(Job|File|Image)/ ) { $dispatch{$1}->($line); } # group functionality if( $line =~ m/(Job|Image)/ ) { $job_details_info{$1} = $line; } elsif( $line =~ m/File/ ) { push @files, $line; } } sub job { my ( $line ) = @_; $job_details_info{Job} = $line; } sub file { my ( $line ) = @_; push @files, $line; } sub image { my ( $line ) = @_; $job_details_info{Image} = $line; } # you could combine the job and image subs into something like this sub add_to_hash { my ( $key, $line ) = @_; $job_details_info{$key} = $line; }