# Snippet 1 - a stepping stone
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

# The phone book in an ordinary format,
# as it might be read from a text file for example
my $numbers =
    "Alice: 555 1234\n" . 
    "Bob: 555 9876\n" . 
    "Charlie: 555 2580";

# The hash. Still empty.
my %phonebook = ();

# Split $numbers on newlines, then iterate over the returned elements
# Then get the name and the number from each element and store them in the hash.
for my $line ( split(/\n/, $numbers) ) {
    my ($name,$number) = split(/:\s+/, $line);
    $phonebook{$name} = $number;
}

# Bob's a cool guy. I should call him. What's his number again?
print "Bob's digits are $phonebook{Bob}\n\n";

# Heck, Alice, Bob, Charlie -- they're all pretty cool!
print Dumper \%phonebook;