after a tactful /msg from chromatic, i can confirm that this works too, provided the data are very tidy indeed.

(i wish someone would redefine data as the mass noun it surely is, then I could stop pedantically pluralising around it.)

my (undef, %lines) = split(/(\d+): /, join('', <DATA>));
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ugly, fragile and unwise, but you know, short.