my $outer = Text::CSV_XS->new ({ binary => 1, auto_diag => 1 }); my $inner = Text::CSV_XS->new ({ binary => 1, auto_diag => 1, sep_char => ":" }); my %hash; while (my $row = $outer->getline ($fh)) { foreach (@$row) { $inner->parse ($_); my @f = $inner->fields; if (@f >= 2) { # assuming key:value:1 will result in $hash{key} = "value:1" my $key = shift @f; $hash{$key} = join ":" => @f; } else { warn "Probably not a key-value pair '$_'"; } } }