If the content of the $data_location file(s) is not too large for the available memory, then the obvious cure would be to read its content only once and to load it into memory in an appropriate data structure (probably a hash table of some form or other), and then to read source file line by line and to lookup in memory for the additional data pieces required.

Such a process can often be several orders of magnitude faster (i.e. hundreds or even thousands times faster, perhaps even more). But this is feasible only of the data in $data_location (or the part of it that you actually use) is not too large to fit in memory.

Therefore the question asked by poj about the size of your data and about the current timings is really crucial.

If the data is too large to fit into memory, there is still the possibility of storing the data in $data_location into a database to enable indexed access to the piece of data the you need. The performance gain would be much smaller, but can still be very significant and might be sufficient for your purpose.

In reply to Re: Perl Script performance issue by Laurent_R
in thread Perl Script performance issue by Tara

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