use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; use Data::Diver qw( DiveRef ); my $data = {}; while () { chomp; my @keys = split /:/; my $val = pop(@keys); my $ref = DiveRef( $data, map \$_, @keys ); push @$$ref, $val; } print Dumper($data); __DATA__ gkey01:key1:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 gkey02:key1:key2:key3:1 2 3 4 gkey03:key1:key2:key3:key4:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 gkey04:key1:key2:key3:1 2 gkey05:key1:key2:key3:key4:1 2 gkey06:key1:key2:key3:key4:key5:1 2 3 gkey07:key1:key2:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 gkey08:key1:key2:key3:key4:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gkey09:key1:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gkey10:key1:1 2 3 4 5 6 gkey11:key1:1 2 3 4 gkey12:key1:key2:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 gkey13:key1:key2:key3:key4:1 2 3 4 gkey14:key1:key2:key3:1 2 gkey15:key1:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gkey16:key1:key2:1 gkey17:key1:key2:key3:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 gkey18:key1:key2:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gkey19:key1:key2:key3:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 gkey20:key1:key2:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9