Duly noted. Thanks for the tip on perltidy. I'd never heard of that script before.

What I am looking for is to remove the duplicate part numbers and combine the tags (and add the quantities) similar to below:

413: quantity=2.0000 ,description=PRESS GAUGE ,tags=PI-412 PI-400 ,par
+tnum=2204133000 ,
414: quantity=2.0000 ,description=THERMOWELL ,tags= ,partnum=220226100
+0 ,
415: quantity=5.0000 ,description=THERMOMETER ,tags= TI-100 TI-101 TI-
+200  ,partnum=2201176000 ,
[download]

The original information is below:

413: partnum=2204133000,description=PRESS GAUGE,quantity=1.0000,tags=P
+I-412 ,
414: partnum=2202261000,description=THERMOWELL,quantity=2.0000,tags= ,
415: partnum=2201176000,description=THERMOMETER,quantity=2.0000,tags= 
+,
576: partnum=2204133000,description=PRESS GAUGE,quantity=1.0000,tags=P
+I-400 ,
582: partnum=2201176000,description=THERMOMETER,quantity=3.0000,tags=T
+I-100 TI-101 TI-200
[download]

The code is below:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
use strict;
use warnings;

my @tmp2 = (
"413: partnum=2204133000,description=PRESS GAUGE,quantity=1.0000,tags=
+PI-412",
    "414: partnum=2202261000,description=THERMOWELL,quantity=2.0000,ta
+gs=",
    "415: partnum=2201176000,description=THERMOMETER,quantity=2.0000,t
+ags=",
"576: partnum=2204133000,description=PRESS GAUGE,quantity=1.0000,tags=
+PI-400",
"582: partnum=2201176000,description=THERMOMETER,quantity=3.0000,tags=
+TI-100 TI-101 TI-200"
);

#
# Move the data into a hash %HoH
#

my $who   = ();
my $field = ();
my %HoH   = ();
my $rec   = ();
my $key   = ();
my $value = ();

foreach (@tmp2) {
    s/^(.*?):\s*//;
    $who       = $1;
    $rec       = {};
    $HoH{$who} = $rec;
    for $field ( split(/,/) ) {
        ( $key, $value ) = split /=/, $field;
        $rec->{$key} = $value;
    }
}

print "\nHash complete\n";

##############################################
##
## Remove duplicate part numbers and combine the tags, if necessary.
##
##

print "######################################";
print "Duplicate Removal Testing\n";
my %tmpHoH = %HoH;

my $keyouter;
my $valueouter;
my $keydup;
my $valuedup;

my @keydelete = ();

while ( ( $keyouter, $valueouter ) = each %HoH ) {
    while ( ( $keydup, $valuedup ) = each %tmpHoH ) {
        if ( $keyouter eq $keydup ) {
            next;
        }
        if ( $HoH{$keyouter}{partnum} eq $tmpHoH{$keydup}{partnum} ) {
            print "**********\n";
            print
"key: $keyouter, value: $HoH{$keyouter}{partnum}, tag= $HoH{$keyouter}
+{tags}\n";
            print
"key: $keydup, value: $tmpHoH{$keydup}{partnum}, tag= $tmpHoH{$keydup}
+{tags}\n";
            $HoH{$keyouter}{tags} =
              $HoH{$keyouter}{tags} . " " . $tmpHoH{$keydup}{tags};
            print "$tmpHoH{$keyouter}{tags}\n";
            print "**********\n";
            push( @keydelete, "$keyouter=>$keydup" );
        }
    }
}

print "######################################\n";

##############################################

#############################################
#
## Testing to see if the hash is working.
##  Uncomment Section below to test.

my $iter  = ();
my $iter2 = ();

for $iter ( keys %HoH ) {
    print "$iter: ";
    for $iter2 ( keys %{ $HoH{$iter} } ) {
        print "$iter2=$HoH{$iter}{$iter2} ,";
    }
    print "\n";
}
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