#! perl -slw use strict; use Data::Dump qw[ pp ]; my $reHeader = '(\b\w+\s*)?' x 10; my %data; until( eof( DATA ) ) { ## Read the header line and remove the newline chomp( my $header = ); ## parse the fields using the regex, ignoring undefined fields my @keys = grep defined, $header =~ $reHeader; ## trim the trailing whitespace from the keys s[\s*$][] for @keys; ## Use the capture position arrays (@- & @+) ## to work out the field widths and construct a template my $tmpl = join ' ', map{ defined( $-[$_] ) ? do{ my $n = $+[$_] - $-[$_]; "a$n" } : () } 1 .. $#+; ## read and chomp the values line chomp( my $vals = ); ## Extract the value fields using the template my @vals = unpack $tmpl, $vals; ## trim leading & trailing whitespace s[^\s*][],s[\s*$][] for @vals; ## Add the key/value pairs to the hash @data{ @keys } = @vals; ## discard the blank line between the grouped pairs of lines. ; } pp \%data; ## display the hash constructed __DATA__ TRHYST TROFFSETP TROFFSETN AWOFFSET BQOFFSET 2 0 5 3 HIHYST LOHYST OFFSETP OFFSETN BQOFFSETAFR 5 3 0 3 CELLR DIR CAND CS LUC083A MUTUAL BOTH NO