my %inc = map { $_ => ($content =~ /inc_$_=(.*?)\n/)[0] || undef } qw(albums genres artists songs ratings year); #### use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $content = <<'GROK'; inc_albums=albumvalue inc_genres=genrevalue inc_artists =artistvalue inc_songs=songsvalue inc_ratings=ratingsvalue inc_year=yearvalue GROK { my %inc = map { my ($v) = $content =~ /inc_$_=(.*?)\n/; $_ => $v } qw(albums genres artists songs ratings year); print Dumper(\%inc); } { my %inc = map { $_ => ($content =~ /inc_$_=(.*?)\n/)[0]; } qw(albums genres artists songs ratings year); print Dumper(\%inc); } { my %inc = map { $_ => ($content =~ /inc_$_=(.*?)\n/)[0] || undef } qw(albums genres artists songs ratings year); print Dumper(\%inc); } #### $VAR1 = { 'artists' => undef, 'ratings' => 'ratingsvalue', 'songs' => 'songsvalue', 'genres' => 'genrevalue', 'albums' => 'albumvalue', 'year' => 'yearvalue' }; Odd number of elements in hash assignment at ff2.pl line 21. $VAR1 = { 'ratingsvalue' => 'year', 'songsvalue' => 'ratings', 'artists' => 'songs', 'genres' => 'genrevalue', 'yearvalue' => undef, 'albums' => 'albumvalue' }; $VAR1 = { 'artists' => undef, 'ratings' => 'ratingsvalue', 'songs' => 'songsvalue', 'genres' => 'genrevalue', 'albums' => 'albumvalue', 'year' => 'yearvalue' };