you can create an empty hash, and insert key-value pairs on it later, i.e. as you read them from STDIN: 
my %hash;

while(<>) {
  chomp;
  my ($key, $value) = split('=', $_);
  $hash{$key} = $value;
}

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In reply to Re: How to build a hash? by salva
in thread How to build a hash? by Anonymous Monk

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