my %data; while(){ chomp; my $val = ; chomp($val); $data{$_} = $val; } use Data::Dumper; print Dumper \%data; __DATA__ A 33 B 22 __OUTPUT__ $VAR1 = { 'A' => ' 33', 'B' => ' 22' }; #### while(){ chomp; my $val = ; chomp($val); $$_ = $val; } print "A: $A\n"; print "B: $B\n"; __DATA__ A 33 B 22