use strict; use warnings; my %parent_of; ; # skip header while () { chomp; my ( $child, $parent ) = split( /;/ ); $parent ||= $child; $parent_of{$child} = $parent; $parent_of{$parent} = $parent unless ( exists( $parent_of{$parent} )); } my $changes; do { $changes = 0; for my $child ( keys %parent_of ) { my $parent = $parent_of{$child}; while ( $parent_of{$parent} != $parent ) { my $next_parent = $parent_of{$parent}; $parent_of{$child} = $next_parent; $parent = $next_parent; $changes++; } } } while ( $changes ); for my $child ( sort keys %parent_of ) { print " $child => $parent_of{$child}\n"; } __DATA__ NUM;NUMPRED 567;456 456;345 345;234 234;123 339;228 228;117 131; 435;324 324;213 372; 789;678 678;567