I would use a hash which held references to arrays of arrays. You could use the first column as the key, and hold a reference to an array where each element is a reference to an array holding the data of each line that had that key. Sounds complicated, but isn't too bad once you get the hang of it.

heres some sample code: 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

open FILE, "input" || die "Couldn't open file";

my %hash;
              
while ( <FILE> ) {
   chomp;
   my ( $key, @rest ) = split /,/;
   foreach ( 0 .. 4 ) {
      $rest[$_] = "" unless ( defined( $rest[$_] ) );
   }
   push @{ $hash{$key} }, \@rest;
}

# To print out every 1st row of all the ones beginning with QTY
print "$_->[0]\n" foreach ( @{ $hash{QTY} } );

# total number of entries for the category
print scalar( @{ $hash{QTY} } );

# print a specific row of data
print "@{ $hash{QTY}[2] }\n";

[download]
Update: Hehehe... looks like i was beaten to it... oh well... the more the merrier, right?

In reply to RE: Creating the right type of array... by Boogman
in thread Creating the right type of array... by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.