use strict; my %names; while (<>) { my ($label, $name1, $name2, $name3, $name4) = split /:/; $names{$label}{"first"} = {$name1} $names{$label}{"second"} = $name2; $names{$label}{"third"} = {$name3} $names{$label}{"fourth"} = $name4; }