use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my %store; # put the results in here while () { while(m< (\w+) = "((?:[^"\\]|\\.)+)" >gx) { # $store{$1} ||= []; ## useless: see hdb's answer below push @{ $store{$1} }, $2; # or push @array, {$. => $2} if you want to keep track of the line of definition } } print Dumper \%store; # Look what we got __DATA__ dvgqu="0"vgrq="0"w="0"devce="db"elped_me="0"r="0"rmb="0"rrqm="0"vcm="0"ul="0"w="0"wmb="0"wrqm="0" dvgqu="0.00"vgrq="58.91"w="0.09"devce="d"elped_me="1"r="0.00"rmb="0.00"rrqm="0.00"vcm="0.09"ul="0.05"w="5.50"wmb="324.00"wrqm="35.00"