my @records; # store the hashrefs in here my @keys = qw(Emp_No Emp_Lname Emp_Fname Emp_SSN Emp_DOB Emp_aka); open(IN,"input.txt") or die("Can't open input.txt"); while() { chomp; my %Employee_Rec; @Employee_Rec{@keys} = split /,/, $_; # hash slice print "$Employee_Rec{Emp_No} \n"; print "$Employee_Rec{Emp_Lname} \n"; print "$Employee_Rec{Emp_Fname} \n"; print "$Employee_Rec{Emp_SSN} \n"; print "$Employee_Rec{Emp_DOB} \n"; print "$Employee_Rec{Emp_aka} \n"; push @records, \%Employee_Rec; } close(IN);