in reply to hash question

I'd use a Hash of Arrayrefs.
use Modern::Perl; use Data::Dump qw /dump/; my %hash; while (<DATA>) { chomp; my ($item, $sequence, $value) = m/(aixFsMountPoint|aixFsSize|aixFs +Free)\.(\d+)\s=\s"?([^"]*)/; next unless $item; $hash{$item}[$sequence] = $value; } say dump(\%hash); __DATA__ actual STDOUT: aixFsMountPoint.1 = "/" aixFsMountPoint.2 = "/usr" aixFsMountPoint.3 = "/var" aixFsMountPoint.4 = "/tmp" aixFsMountPoint.5 = "/local.home" aixFsMountPoint.6 = "/admin" aixFsMountPoint.7 = "/proc" aixFsMountPoint.8 = "/opt" aixFsMountPoint.9 = "/var/adm/ras/livedump" aixFsMountPoint.10 = "/net" aixFsMountPoint.11 = "/net/nim01at/opt/CBC-CFG" aixFsMountPoint.12 = "/net/nim01at/opt/CBC-CFG" aixFsSize.1 = 3072 aixFsSize.2 = 8512 aixFsSize.3 = 10240 aixFsSize.4 = 4096 aixFsSize.5 = 64 aixFsSize.6 = 128 aixFsSize.7 = 0 aixFsSize.8 = 4096 aixFsSize.9 = 3072 aixFsSize.10 = 0 aixFsSize.11 = 7168 aixFsSize.12 = 7168 aixFsFree.1 = 2631 aixFsFree.2 = 3232 aixFsFree.3 = 2373 aixFsFree.4 = 1923 aixFsFree.5 = 46 aixFsFree.6 = 127 aixFsFree.7 = 0 aixFsFree.8 = 3000 aixFsFree.9 = 3071 aixFsFree.10 = 0 aixFsFree.11 = 3463 aixFsFree.12 = 3463
Output
{ aixFsFree => [undef, 2631, 3232, 2373, 1923, 46, 127, 0, 3000, + 3071, 0, 3463, 3463], aixFsMountPoint => [ undef, "/", "/usr", "/var", "/tmp", "/local.home", "/admin", "/proc", "/opt", "/var/adm/ras/livedump", "/net", "/net/nim01at/opt/CBC-CFG", "/net/nim01at/opt/CBC-CFG", ], aixFsSize => [undef, 3072, 8512, 10240, 4096, 64, 128, 0, 4096 +, 3072, 0, 7168, 7168], }
Of course, whether such datastructure is useful or not will ultimately depend on what you want to do with the data.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James