Perl parsing file content - perl

Question

I am trying to parse text file content consists of 3 categories and access it in the main code. I got to know that hash maybe a good way but since no columns in the input file is unique (Name could be repeatedly or different), I doubt is there other way to do it. Appreciate any reply.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $file = "/path/to/text.txt";
my %info = parseCfg($file);
#get first line data in text file (Eric cat xxx)
#get second line data in text file (Michelle dog yyy)
#so on
}
sub parseCfg {
my $file = shift;
my %data;
return if !(-e $file);
open(my $fh, "<", $file) or die "Can't open < $file: $!";
my $msg = "-I-: Reading from config file: $file\n";
while (<$fh>) {
if (($_=~/^#/)||($_=~/^\s+$/)) {next;}
my #fields = split(" ", $_);
my ($name, $son, $address) = #fields;
#return something
}
close $fh;
}
Input file format:(basically 3 columns)
#Name pet address
Eric cat xxx
Michelle dog yyy
Ben horse zzz
Eric cat aaa

Answer 1

The question isn't clear how the data will be used in the code.
Following code sample demonstrates how the data can be read and stored in anonymous hash referenced by $href. Then $href stored in anonymous array referenced in $aref which returned by parse_cnf() subroutine.
use strict;
use warnings;
use feature 'say';
use Data::Dumper;
my $fname = 'pet_data.txt';
my $data = parse_cnf($fname);
say Dumper($data);
printf "Name: %-12s Pet: %-10s Address: %s\n", $_->#{qw/name pet address/} for $data->#*;
exit 0;
sub parse_cnf {
my $fname = shift;
my $aref;
open my $fh, '<', $fname
or die "Couldn't open $fname";
while( <$fh> ) {
next if /(^\s*$|^#)/;
my $href->#{qw/name pet address/} = split;
push $aref->#*, $href;
}
close $fh;
return $aref;
}
Output
$VAR1 = [
{
'address' => 'xxx',
'pet' => 'cat',
'name' => 'Eric'
},
{
'pet' => 'dog',
'name' => 'Michelle',
'address' => 'yyy'
},
{
'name' => 'Ben',
'pet' => 'horse',
'address' => 'zzz'
},
{
'address' => 'aaa',
'pet' => 'cat',
'name' => 'Eric'
}
];
Name: Eric Pet: cat Address: xxx
Name: Michelle Pet: dog Address: yyy
Name: Ben Pet: horse Address: zzz
Name: Eric Pet: cat Address: aaa