use warnings; use strict; use Data::Dump::Streamer; my %records; while (! eof (DATA)) { my $line1 = ; next unless defined $line1 and $line1 =~ /^\s1/; $_ = for my ($line2, $line3, $line4, $line5); my $id = substr $line1, 9, 5; $records{$id} = [$line1, $line2, $line3, $line4, $line5]; } Dump (\%records); __DATA__ 10101ABC000019101L0001374686047S30339 GA &DOE C080229CR7 7 00244 0000001 000000000 2 CR7 000 060714Q Y 0000000000 000 3 00030339 3JOHN DOE 36 423 MAIN STREET ATLANTA GA 30339 5 +0000000000080226I 052461 05241961 10101ABC000029102 N D 3658 MAIN STREET 2 ATLANTA GA30339 0001 3JOHN DOE 05241961INDV374686047S 4 5