Thanks for all of the help, Here is what I am currently going with:
my $prices = '../paul_s/data/prices.txt'; open (FH,$prices) || die "could not open $prices $!"; while( <FH> ) { s/^\s*(.+)\s*$/$1/; # clean the front of each line next if /^\s*$/; # skip blank lines my ( $k, $v ) = split /\s*,\s*/; # cool use of split $v =~ s/^\s*(.+?)\s*$/$1/; # clean the value $prices{qq($k)} = $v; } close FH; ######## "John W. Krahn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> suggests, my %prices = do { local $/; <FH> =~ /[^\n,]+/g }; Nice and compact, but how does one remove spurious white space? Just a thought :) Good night Local time (1:12 AM CST) Dave ( kora musician / audiophile / web master @ cora connection / Ft. Worth, TX, USA) ============================================== Cora Connection: Your West African Music Source Resources, Recordings, Instruments & More! <http://www.coraconnection.com/> ============================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]