%hash = map {/ (\S+) /, substr $string, 0, $', ''} @list;

I'd normally say that unpack is probably your friend, as shown above in the other replies. However, it looks to me like a nonsense of a format to be supplied with. I'd ask them (the mysterious they, of course) to supply it in a csv file with column headers, and run it through DBX. Or something like that.