This is a job for a database. In fact, very likely generating a database on the fly from your existing data then querying the database will be quicker and easier to maintain than trying to juggle a plethora of files.

See Databases made easy to get your eye in with databases. Databases aren't as hard to use for this sort of job as you probably imagine and are much easier than trying to roll your own.

Premature optimization is the root of all job security

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

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