Yes it would be "expensive" but if you don't have the memory to keep all the records in, then sort is not only the faster way to go, it's the only sane way to go. Sorting doesn't require large amounts of memory (though simple sorting would), and perl could do the presorting itself. Anyway for small files presorting would be a waste of time-energy and time-cpu. However as the input files grow, simply sorting your input beforehand can do wonders.

Ciao,
Gryn

In reply to Presort's Cost by gryng
in thread Efficiency and Large Arrays by Kozz

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