pugsly62 you could apply the principle here to your code .. 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $key;
my $formatted_text = &format_me;
print $formatted_text;

sub format_me
{
   my $pair;
   open BLOCKSTRUCTURE, '>', \$pair;
   foreach $key ( sort keys %ENV ) {
      write BLOCKSTRUCTURE;
   }

   format BLOCKSTRUCTURE =
@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< value ->    @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
+<<<<<<<<<<<<
$key,                                   $ENV{$key}
.

  return $pair;
}

[download]

This formats the data in %ENV (the hash holding Perl's view of the system environment) into two columns - you don't have to write a disk file - you can hold format()'ed blocks of data like columns in a scalar variable!! (must be using Perl 5.8 or later)

update: Forgot to mention: the trick there is to "write" to a HANDLE (which instead of writing to a file, writes to a scalar), and create a format statement called HANDLE (format and handle names identical). I would take a stab at your desired output but don't see where you print $county in your desired output example..

In reply to Re: formatting output by hsinclai
in thread formatting output by pugsly62

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