#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; my %lookup = ( 'NEW YORK' => 1, 'MIAMI' => 1, ); my %data; while ( ) { next unless /^([^:]+):\s+(\S+)/ && $lookup{ $1 }; $data{ $1 } = $2; } __END__ NEW YORK: knicks CHICAGO: bulls MIAMI: heat LA: lakers