I'm wondering if anyone can optimize these loops for me: each cycle takes about a second, ...

You need to separate out the time it's taking to open the file and do file I/O from the time it's taking to interate over the keys and build the matrix.

Do this: Comment out everything between the tie and the untie (missing, but worth adding for general cleanliness). If this doesn't have a significant impact on runtime, then your answer is "buy a faster disk" (or defrag the one you've got).

Next step is to comment out the code that's building the matrix (after doing each %hash). This retains the disk IO for reading keys, while separating out the overhead for your data structures. If this doesn't have a significant effect of overall runtime, answers range from "buy a faster disk" to "precache the keys in the db".

I really doubt this is due to your matrix building code.

In reply to Re: optimize this code? by dws
in thread Optimization of DB_File sorting and processing code by Evanovich

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.