use strict;
  use warnings;

  our %people = (); # I use 'our' for global and 'my' for temporary data
  our $ksep = "\r"; # you define your key separator
  our $dsep = "\t"; # you define your data separator
                    # I use chr(30) & chr(254) respectfully!
                    #   Use something that will not be part
                    #   of the raw data or use 'pack' for the
                    #   length of the data elements.
 
  my $key  = 'pat';
  my $data = "$key$ksep";
    $data .= "Name=$key$dsep";   # You can use "\t" instead of '='
    $data .= "Address=50 car road$dsep";
    $data .= "Postcode=aa1 1ab$dsep";
    . . .
    $data .= "END=Finish"; # I like an end ( helps with 'split' )

  $people{$key} = $data    # key is also part of data

  # This can now to saved in a flat file or database or both.
  # You need a double 'split' to get the key and data
  #    Then each data field needs to be split on '=' or "\t"