use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $data="key1=value1 key2=value2 value3 key3=value4 value5 value6 key4=value7 key5=value8 key6=value9 value10"; # Albannach version my %hash; while ($data =~ /(\w+=)((\w+( |$)+)+)/g) { $hash{$1} = $2; } print Dumper \%hash; # gumpu version: my %foo; while ($data =~ m/(\S+)=(\S+($|([^=]+\s+)+))/g) { $foo{$1}=$2; } print Dumper \%foo; #### $VAR1 = { 'key4=' => 'value7 ', 'key5=' => 'value8 ', 'key1=' => 'value1 ', 'key6=' => 'value9 value10', 'key2=' => 'value2 value3 ', 'key3=' => 'value4 value5 value6 ' }; $VAR1 = { 'key1' => 'value1 ', 'key2' => 'value2 value3 ', 'key3' => 'value4 value5 value6 ', 'key4' => 'value7 ', 'key5' => 'value8 ', 'key6' => 'value9 ' };