my %acrhom_prefix = ( BAC => '(.*)\s*', LENGTH => '(.*)\s*', OSME => '(.*)\s*', CHR_START => '(.*)\s*', BAC_START => '(.*)\s*', BAC_END => '(.*)\s*', ORIENTATION => '(\w)\w*\s*', ); #### sub ParseAChroms { my ($achromref) = @_; my (%value); foreach (@$achromref) { my ($prefix, $data) = /^(\S+):\s+(.*)/; if (my $pattern = $achrom_prefix{$prefix}) { ($value{lc $prefix}) = $data =~ /^$pattern$/; } } return @data{qw[ type ac_id length chr_num chr_start chr_end bac_start bac_end orient]}; }