The while loop puts each line in $_ which is some sort of universal default variable.

The split splits the string in $_ on the following pattern: "zero or more spaces; equal sign; zero or more spaces" and puts the results of this splitting in the variables $key and $value (actually $value is not used in my script, but I left it in otherwise you might wonder where the second part of the split went to).

m/["']([^'"]+)/ is a regular expression match and it (also) does some pattern matching, again on the contents of the $_ variable. It tries to match the following pattern: "one single or one double quote; one or more times anything but a single or double quote". The "one or more times anything but a single or double quote" pattern is captured (see the parentheses round the [^'"]?) into the $1 variable. If the match succeeds, we store the contents of $1 into the %data hash keyed by $key.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

In reply to Re^3: Accessing data present in a text file with references... by CountZero
in thread Accessing data present in a text file with references... by VGR

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