#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use autodie; use constant { IN_FILE => 'pm_1200636_text.txt', HEADER => 0, KEY => 1, VALUE => 2, }; my %parsed; { open my $fh, '<', IN_FILE; my $name; while (<$fh>) { my @fields = split; if ($fields[HEADER] eq 'name') { $name = $fields[KEY]; next; } if ($fields[HEADER] eq 'device') { push @{$parsed{$name}{$fields[KEY]}}, $fields[VALUE]; next; } } } # For testing only use Data::Dump; dd \%parsed; #### $ cat pm_1200636_text.txt name Brian shirt yellow socks black device ipad 2001 device ipad 2001 device ipad 2001 tag no tag 0 name Andrew shirt orange socks black device ipad 2009 tag no tag 0 name ryan shirt blue socks black device ipad 2005 device cell 2009 tag yes tag 1 #### { Andrew => { ipad => [2009] }, Brian => { ipad => [2001, 2001, 2001] }, ryan => { cell => [2009], ipad => [2005] }, }