Tell us more about your efficiency concerns. How often is this program run? How long does it take to run now? What sort of time would you like it to run in? How big is the data file?

If after answering those questions you're sure that efficiency is a concern, run it under the Perl profiler with perl -d:DProf program.pl, and then run dprofpp to process the output (automatically stored in the file tmon.out). The output will give you an idea where to focus your efficiency concerns.

xoxo,
Andy
--
<megaphone> Throw down the gun and tiara and come out of the float! </megaphone>