Greetings all,
Im not sure what it is that you want but here is an option...

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Dumpvalue;

my @ACCTS;
open(IN, "< myfile") || die "Help!\n";
while (<IN>) {
my ($id, $name, $street, $city, $zip, $phone, $start_dt) = split(/\|\|
+/, 
+$_);

###push onto the array ACCTS an anonymous hash reference from the valu
+es you just split.
push(@ACCTS, {'name' => name, 'street' =>$street, 'city' =>$city, 'zip
+' =>$zip, 'phone' =>$phone, 'start_dt' =>$start_dt, 'id' =>$id});
}
close IN;
###always check what you have created.
dump_ref(\@ACCTS);

sub dump_ref
{
my $ref = shift;
my $dumper = new Dumpvalue;
$dumper->dumpValues($ref);
}
[download]

The above methodology will create an array of hashes. I assumed that ACCTS was probably referring to account information so a list of accounts is probably what you are looking for... though I could be wrong. So each account record is now an anonymous hash within your ACCTS array.
This way something like

foreach(@ACCTS){
   #dereference the elements of the hash contained in this 
   #row of your array with the arrow... its just easier to 
   #read in my opinion.
   print "This accounts id is ".$_->{id}."\n";
}
[download]

Would be how you get back at your data.
The dump_ref sub simply shows you the internals of any nested datatype you create.
Hope that helps.
-injunjoel