#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $records = {};  # reference to the anonymous uberhash 
my @record; #could be declared my in the loop where assigned

open(DB, "< db.txt") ||
       die "Could not open the database: $!";

while(<DB>) {
    chomp;
    @record = split(/\t/);
    $records->{$record[0]} = { # we're starting an anon hashref
                      split /\||,/, # split to list on pipe or comma
                           $record[1]}; # done
    print map "$record[0]\t$_\t$records->{ $record[0] }{ $_ }\n",
          keys %{$records->{$record[0]}};
}
close(DB) ||
       die "Could not close the database: $!";

# now you can set other values in the hash if you like:
# $records->{$index}{'description'} = "Randomly indexed item";