The following code is a slightly more robust version. Note in particular that the result of the open is checked and a three parameter open is used. Note too that the line gets chomped and the format checked (at least a little) and bad input lines rejected. Even then a lot more checking ought to be done (duplicate keys anyone?).

I'd recommend however that you look at some of the configuration options bobf mentioned.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; use warnings;

my %data;

#open INPUT, '<', $InputFile" or die "Failed to open $InputFile: $!";

while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    
    next if ! /(\w+)\s*:\s*(\w+)/;
    $data{$1} = $2;
}

print "$_ => $data{$_}\n" for keys %data;

__DATA__
foo:FOO
bar:BAR

bogus data line - comment maybe?

baz:BAZ
qux:QUX

[download]

Prints:

bar => BAR
baz => BAZ
qux => QUX
foo => FOO

[download]
DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

In reply to Re: Converting a Flat-File to a Hash by GrandFather
in thread Converting a Flat-File to a Hash 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.