If the data were more structured, I'd look at marshalling it as XML, and using XML::XPath for queries and updates. This would let you find pages based on name to get the "next" or "previous" pages trivially, including doing inserts and rewriting the XML to your marshall file if you need. You could also find associated data by storing it deeper in the same node: 
<pages>
  <page ident="first page" />
  <page ident="second page">
    <validation type="numeric"/>
  </page>
  <page ident="third page" />
</pages>

[download]
This would be a simple format to edit, and to process electronically.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

In reply to •Re: Linked-list Style Data Structure by merlyn
in thread Linked-list Style Data Structure by impossiblerobot

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.