I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation on the most effective method to do this.

The most effective method is to have someone else do it for you, seriously :)

Your data look vaguely like LISP, so I'd search for lisp parsers on CPAN.

Something similar Re: String Search, Re^5: String Search

In reply to Re: Parsing to a hash suggestions by Anonymous Monk
in thread Parsing to a hash suggestions by chasdavies

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