Well here is a way to read in the file in a nicer way. Change the record separator to match on semi-colon. Since you have semi-colons in your data I added the newline to the semi-colon for the record separator so it would match only the semi-colons you want. Then you can split the record on newline to get each line into an array.

I would show you the rest, but there is not enough space in this margin.

$/ = ";\n";
while(my $record = <DATA>) {
     my @rows = split("\n", $record);
     print "$rows[0]\n";
     print "$rows[-2]\n";
}


__DATA__
Begin Product A0001
    Small gadget
    5.00 0.00
    0.25 0.00
    No ; Tracking Inventory?
    /Images/gadget1.jpg
    ProdText\A0001.txt
    Begin Option Gadget Color
        Red
        Green
        Blue
        Yellow
        Black
        White
    End Option
    Begin Option Extra Attachment
        No Attachment <NoShow>
        Attachment ($5.00 extra) <+5.00> <NoTitle>
    End Option
End Product
;
Begin Product A0002
    Huge Widget
    25.00 2.50
    20.00 0.00
    Yes ; Tracking Inventory?
    /Images/gadget2.jpg
    ProdText\A0002.txt
    Begin Option Widget Color
        Red
        Green
        Blue
        Yellow
        Black
        White
    End Option
    Begin Option Monogramming
        Include monogramming <NoTitle> <Custom:0.05>
        No monogramming <NoTitle>
    End Option
End Product
;
Begin Product GPY01A1
    GPY Angel 1 Print 8.5x11
    140.00 0.00
    1.00 3.00
    ProdText\GPY01A1.txt
    SoftGoodControl: ::0:0
    PriceCategory: Wholesale:114.00:114.00 Retail:114.00:114.00 Reside
+ntial:114.
End Product
;


##Results##
Begin Product A0001
End Product
Begin Product A0002
End Product
Begin Product GPY01A1
End Product

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In reply to Re: how to hash this by DeaconBlues
in thread how to hash this by malaga

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