#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my %data; my $InputFile = "/the/file/in/question"; open INPUT, "< $InputFile"; foreach $line () { my @array = split /:/, $line; $data{$array[1]} = $array[2]; } contents of /the/file/in/question: foo:FOO bar:BAR baz:BAZ qux:QUX