use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; open my $univFH, q{<}, \ < ) { my( $lev2Key, $lev1Key ) = split; $univ{ $lev1Key }->{ $lev2Key } = {}; } close $univFH or die qq{close: < HEREDOC: $!\n}; print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ %univ ], [ qw{ *univ } ] ); open my $valuesFH, q{<}, \ < 456->abc xxx ==> 789->abc yyy ==> 456->abc yyy ==> 456->abc zzz ==> 123->abc EOD while ( <$valuesFH> ) { chomp; my( $lev3Key, $upperKeys ) = split m{\s*==>\s*}; my( $lev1Key, $lev2Key) = split m{->}, $upperKeys; $univ{ $lev1Key }->{ $lev2Key }->{ $lev3Key } = 1; } close $valuesFH or die qq{close: < HEREDOC: $!\n}; print Data::Dumper->Dumpxs( [ \ %univ ], [ qw{ *univ } ] );