Hi all

I am trying to process a very large file and only storing some of the data. The file contains a code and a score. A simple example looks like this:

0 5 3 7   0.92
1 5 4 8   0.12
6 8 4 6   0.54

[download]

With the code on the left had side and its score on the right. I want to keep only the elements with the 10 highest scores. However the file that I am trying to process is more than 8gb, so I don't want to put the entire thing into the hash. I there a way to limit the size of a hash? Or a way that I keep only the 10 highest values and discard everything else

Thanks in advance for any help, much appreciated

In reply to Limit the size of a hash by Dr Manhattan

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