sub get_hash { my %opt = @_; open(my $fh, '<', $opt{file}) or die("can't open $opt{file} $!"); my $line_number = 0; my %hash; while (my $line = <$fh>) { ++$line_number; chomp $line; my @values = split(/\|/,$line); my $n = 0; $hash{$values[0]}{sort_number} = $line_number if $opt{sort}; for my $heading (@{$opt{headings}}) { $hash{$values[0]}{$heading} = defined($values[$n]) ? $values[$n] : ''; ++$n; } } return %hash; }