use strict; use warnings; chomp(my $datafile = shift || 'data.file'); my $outputfile = 'output.file'; my @keys_in_display_order = qw/Activity Status Valuation/; my (%hash); open my $ifh, '<', $datafile; open my $ofh, '>', $outputfile; printf $ofh "%s\n", join '|', @keys_in_display_order; while(<$ifh>) { next unless $_; if (/^$keys_in_display_order[0]/) { print_it(); %hash = (); } $hash{$1} = $2 if (m/(.+):(.+)$/); } print_it(); close $ifh; close $ofh; sub print_it { return unless (%hash); printf $ofh "%s\n", join '|', @hash{@keys_in_display_order}; }