#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my $rawdata = qq|
<COLUMNS>~ItemName1~ItemName2~ItemName3~ItemName4~ItemName5~</COLUMNS>
<DATA>~Apple~Orange~Banana~Pear~Watermelon~</DATA>
<DATA>~Blue~Red~Yellow~Brown~Purple~</DATA>
<DATA>~Uno~Dos~Tres~Cuatro~Cinco~</DATA>
|;

my @datalines = grep {length} split "\n",$rawdata;
my @listings;

my $header;
foreach my $line (@datalines) {
    if ($line =~ /^<COLUMNS>(.+)<\/COLUMNS>/) {
        $header = $1;
    } elsif ($line =~ /^<DATA>(.+)<\/DATA>/) {
        push(@listings, $1);
    }
}

my %hoa;

my @keys = grep {length} split '~', $header;
for my $listing (@listings) {
    my @list = grep {length} split '~', $listing;
    
    push @{$hoa{$keys[$_]}}, $list[$_] for 0..$#keys;
}

for my $listing (@listings) {
    my @list = grep {length} split '~', $listing;

    my %data;
    @data{@keys} = @list;

    print "Item1 is ", $data{'ItemName1'}, ", ";
    print "Item2 is ", $data{'ItemName2'}, ", ";
    print "Item3 is ", $data{'ItemName3'}, "\n";

}
[download]