use Data::Dumper; my %found; while () { my ($file, @vers) = split " "; if (-f $file) { $found{$file} = [ @vers ]; } } print Dumper(\%found); __DATA__ Files Checked IN: test/abc.txt 1.23 1.3.4.5 team/hello.cpp 2.1 NONE Clear/thing.pl NONE 1.2.34 etc etc