A small point: 
  chomp $line;  #### not needed with below ###
  $line=~s/^\s+//; 
  $line=~s/\s+$//; # this deletes all line ending char's
                   # so the chomp is unnecessary.

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In reply to Re^2: How to analyse structured data to get a hash by Marshall
in thread How to analyse structured data to get a hash by merrymonk

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