Oh wise ones... I have the need to parse a file that lists variables. The file format is something like *rvd*daemonPort : 7500 or hostname*rvd*daemonPort : 7500 or could even extend to hostname*rvd*RTD*daemonPort : 7500. So the variables are scoped either globally or locally. Also, the variables will be unknown to me until I parse the file. So, Parsing the file is not difficult. The issue for me is putting the data into a usable array or hash. 
        while( <FILE> ) {

                @tmp = split(/\*/);

            SWITCH: {
                for ($i = 0; $i <= $#tmp; $i++) {
                  if ($tmp[$i]) {
                    # make sure the first value is the key.
                    print "Setting key : $KEY\n", if ($Verbose);
                    $KEY = "$tmp[$i]";
                        # populate the key with the other values
                        # hostname*rvd*daemonPort : 7500
                        for ($i; $i <= $#tmp; $i++) {
                                # reached the last var populate the va
+lue
                                if ( $tmp[$i] =~ /^(\w+)\s+\:\s+([A-Z.
+0-9_\/])/ig) {

                                  $Vars{$KEY}{$tmp[$i - 1]}{$1} => $2;

                                  print "$tmp[$i]";
                                }else{
                                  $Vars{$KEY}{$tmp[$i]};
                                }
                        }
                    last SWITCH;
                  }
                }
            }

        }   # while <file>

[download]
Obviously this is not going to work correctly. The real problem is getting a hash that looks like this $hash{rvd}{RTD}{daemonPort} => 7500; without knowing how deep I am going to go. Any ideas out there?

In reply to Parse file to Hash of Hash etc. by crusty_collins

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