my $help_hash; my $key; my @help_arr = qw(NAME larry SURNAME wall CODE perl); foreach my $element(@help_arr) { if ($element =~ /^[A-Z]{3,}$/){ $key = $element; }else{ $help_hash->{$key} = $element; } } print Dumper ($help_hash); #### $VAR1 = { 'SURNAME' => 'wall', 'NAME' => 'larry', 'CODE' => 'perl' };