If you just want to print the table you don't need to store anything. If you need to manipulate the data (including using string lengths of the data to format the table nicely) then use an array of hashes.

In any case, a neat way to manage the file is to use the first field name as the line end string so you can read an entire record at a hit:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use 5.010;

my $startField = "Some Field   :";
my $format = "%-15s %8s %8s %6s\n";

printf $format, 'something', 'number1', 'number2', 'word';
local $/ = $startField;

while (defined (my $rec = <DATA>)) {
    next if $rec eq $startField; # Skip empty first record

    my @fields = split "\n", $rec;
    my @values;
    
    $fields[0] = $startField . $fields[0]; # Restore field label
    
    for my $field (@fields[0 .. 3]) {
        my (undef, $value) = split ': ', $field, 2;
        
        push @values, $value;
    }
    
    printf $format, @values;
}


__DATA__
Some Field   : some value
Another Field: 1234
Different One: 5678
Yet Another  : foo
line of uninteresting stuff
Some Field   : some else
Another Field: 4321
Different One: 8765
Yet Another  : bar
more junk
Some Field   : another value
Another Field: 1122
Different One: 5566
Yet Another  : baz

[download]

Prints:

something        number1  number2   word
some value          1234     5678    foo
some else           4321     8765    bar
another value       1122     5566    baz

[download]

Note the local $/ = $startField; line.

True laziness is hard work

In reply to Re: Extracting and manipulating a range of lines by GrandFather
in thread Extracting and manipulating a range of lines by joeymac

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