This one doesn't rely on tabs but on the text itself. 
print <<HEAD;
------------------------------------
| id | name               | parent |
------------------------------------
HEAD

$idcount=0;
while (<DATA>) {
        # get rid of annoying tabs and \n
        chomp;
        s/^\s*//;

        # name this entry
        $thisentry= $_;

        # give it an id
        $id{$thisentry}= ++$idcount;

        # remove last sub-category
        s/,?[^,]+$//;

        # set the parent
        $parent{$thisentry}=$id{$_}+0;

        # print
        printf "| %2d | %-18s | %6d |\n",
                $id{$thisentry},
                $thisentry,
                $parent{$thisentry};
}
print <<FOOT;
------------------------------------
FOOT

__END__
cat1
    cat1,sub1
        cat1,sub1,sub-sub1
    cat1,sub2
cat2
cat3
    cat3,sub1

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In reply to Re: build mysql data structure from text file by Skeeve
in thread build mysql data structure from text file by fireartist

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