I've done this several times, to my dismay, working with several hundreds of thousands of entries with little problem- save for an enormous amount of RAM taken.

A cleaner way to do this, if you're intrested, might be to craft a Tie::Hash object that will interface with your database for you, letting you access it without loading it all at once.

Depending on the format of your database, you might have better options as well, including using a DBI driver such as DBD::csv.

--jwest

-><- -><- -><- -><- -><-
All things are Perfect
    To every last Flaw
    And bound in accord
         With Eris's Law
 - HBT; The Book of Advice, 1:7