Well, look at your data .. A060,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL A061,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL A062,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL A063,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL A064,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL .. .. Put each line in a square bracket making it into an array reference .. [A060,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL] [A061,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL] [A062,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL] [A063,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL] [A064,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL] .. .. Now, separate each line with a comma, and put the entire block inside parens making it an array .. my @aoa = ( [A060,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL], [A061,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL], [A062,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL], [A063,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL], [A064,US,M10,WEDNESDAY,SEASONAL], );