use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my %a; $a{'WI'}{'GreenBay'}{'Color'} = 'Black'; foreach my $update ("WI,GreenBay,White") { my ($state,$city,$color) = split /,/, $update; my $h = $a{$state}{$city}; $h->{'Color'} = $color; }; print Dumper(\%a), "\n"; __DATA__ $VAR1 = { 'WI' => { 'GreenBay' => { 'Color' => 'White' } } };