FWIW, seek was my first thought, too. (Also that I'd prototype in Perl, then write the same thing in C. I might've found my weekend project... :) I can't imagine that allocating memory is going to help (I like when my imagination is challenged, though). I think at least if we can assume the file is in filesystem cache the read will be coming from RAM already anyway.

In reply to Re^2: Faster and more efficient way to read a file vertically by ForgotPasswordAgain
in thread Faster and more efficient way to read a file vertically by Anonymous Monk

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