Depending on what you want to do with the data structure, you might want to build a hash of arrays as others have suggested. If you want to, say, validate makes and models, you might want a hash of hashes. To paraphrase some of what brian_d_foy posted above:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my %hash;
my $make;

while( <DATA> )
    {
    chomp;
   
    if(    /^(\S.*)/    ) { $make = $1 }
    elsif( /^\s+(\S.*)/ ) { $hash{$make}{$1} = 1 }
    elsif( /^\s*$/      ) { next; }
    }

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper( \%hash );

# Valid - prints "Valid..."
my ($make1, $model1) = qw(Nissan Maxima);
print "Valid $make1 model1\n" if $hash{$make1}{$model1};

# Not valid - doesn't print
my ($make2, $model2) = qw(Toyota Mustang);
print "Valid $make2 model2\n" if $hash{$make2}{$model2};

# Valid - prints "Valid..."
my $make3 = "Ford";
print "Valid $make3\n" if $hash{$make3};

__DATA__
Honda
 Civic
 Accord

Toyota
 Camry
 Corolla
 Tundra

Nissan
 Maxima

[download]
If dealing with makes by themselves is unnecessary, you can even use simulated multilevel hashes (saving some memory if there were a large number of makes and models) by changing this line:
elsif( /^\s+(\S.*)/ ) { $hash{$make}{$1} = 1 }

[download]
to this: 
elsif( /^\s+(\S.*)/ ) { $hash{$make,$1} = 1 }

[download]
And then validate with this: 
print "Valid $make1 $model1\n" if $hash{$make1,$model1};

[download]

In reply to Re: hashes with arrays by runrig
in thread hashes with arrays by magawake

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