in reply to read the file and assign each line to a hash????

One major flaw in your concept will be exposed by files which contain "To:" more than once: Perl hash keys must be unique, which means that the hash's value will be overwritten each time "To:" shows up.

Unless this is a rather bizarre (and poorly specified) homework assignment (it isn't, is it?), you should:

  1. Do a supersearch here, and search on CPAN for ways to parse email. You've had several pointers; follow them and pay attention.
  2. Be more forthcoming with the context of what you're trying to do. There are monks with expertise in just about all programming-related disciplines; there is a very good chance one has solved a remarkably similar problem.

emc

At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation.

—Igor Sikorsky, reported in AOPA Pilot magazine February 2003.
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