#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; my @sample = ("483 OS dx-32 1 charles list4 aardvark.com ty-off lx-on C 01", "495 DS dx-14 1 james list3 23.456.12.7 ty-on lx-on B 01", "769 XO dx-32 5 sully nolist widgets.com ty-on lx-on V 07"); my %hoa; foreach my $line (@sample){ my @array = split(/ /, $line); my $key = $array[0]; $hoa{$key} = \@array; #this is a reference } my @keys = keys %hoa; foreach my $item(@keys){ print "log line $item\n"; my @array = @{$hoa{$item}}; #this is dereferenced foreach my $part(@array){ print "$part - ";} print "\n"; }