# the order the data appears in the file
  my %pos = (ip => 0, name => 1, email => 2, proto => 3);

  # the order requested by the user
  my @req = qw(name email proto ip);

  # the ordering used to build the hash
  my @order = map { $pos{$_} } @req;

  # get the data
  my @data =~ /^(\S*) (\S*) (\S*) (\S*)$/;
 
  # file in the hash
  $userdata{$data[$order[0]]}{$data[$order[1]]}{$data[$order[2]]}{$dat
+a[$order[3]]}++;
[download]

-sam