Hi, I approached with your suggestions, but facing some issues after appending some identical data for a key.

my %HoA;
print "Input Data parsed into 3 columns:";

while (my $line = <DATA>) {
    my ($col1,$restcol) = split /:\s*/, $line ,2;
    my @restColumns = split '', $restcol;
    $HoA{$col1} = [@restColumns];
}

print "Dumping Output \n";
for my $dataKey (keys %HoA) {
    print "$dataKey: ", join("\t\t", @{$HoA{$dataKey}}), \n";
}

__DATA__
ULTRIX              :       CW18.72.0.3          IP-HOST1.log
DEC_DECSTATION      :       CW180.72.0.3         IP_HOST_AL.log
DEC_DECSTATION_ADDR :       CW180.72.0.3         IP_HOST_al2.log
FOR_VISITORS23_HOST :       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_hostinfo.log
FOR_VISITORS24_HOST :       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_hostinfo2.log
FOR_VISITORS25_HOST :       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_webform3.log
FOR_VISITORS25_HOST :       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_webform4.log
FOR_VISITORS25_HOST :       HL617.253.1201.2     IP_HOST_webform4.log
[download]

I get the output as below:

FOR_VISITORS25_HOST       HL617.253.1201.2     IP_HOST_webform4.log
DEC_DECSTATION            CW180.72.0.3         IP_HOST_AL.log
FOR_VISITORS23_HOST       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_hostinfo.log
DEC_DECSTATION_ADDR       CW180.72.0.3         IP_HOST_al2.log
ULTRIX                    CW18.72.0.3          IP-HOST1.log
FOR_VISITORS24_HOST       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_hostinfo2.log
[download]

As shown DATA contains two rows for key FOR_VISITORS25_HOST. But in output is considered only once(As keys are unique to hash).

FOR_VISITORS25_HOST       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_webform3.log
FOR_VISITORS25_HOST       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_webform4.log
[download]

I understand every entry for the same key overwrites previous one and keeps the last value encountered for the key. Tried swapping key and values but no luck!!!

Another approach is, Now I can have data in below format

FOR_VISITORS25_HOST       HL617.253.1101.2 :     IP_HOST_webform3.log
FOR_VISITORS25_HOST       HL617.253.1101.2 :     IP_HOST_webform4.log
[download]

Where I can consider key as <FOR_VISITORS25_HOST HL617.253.1101.2> and values are IP_HOST_webform3.log & IP_HOST_webform4.log

But yet, Is there a way out I can prepare a output as below or I am thinking wrong?

FOR_VISITORS25_HOST       HL617.253.1101.2     IP_HOST_webform3.log 
                                               IP_HOST_webform4.log
                                               ......
                                               ...... <more values for
+ same key>
[download]

Thanks.

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