broquaint,
I learn new stuff every day, so forgive me if this sounds obvious.

The magic of the -i doesn't preclude the file from being opened, read, written, and closed does it?

I thought it opened the original file, wrote a new temporary file as it modified lines as appropriate, and then overwrote the original by moving the temporary file in place.

If that really isn't how it works under the hood - please let me know. I think for all intents and purposes, it meets the OP's needs. Besides - Tie::File has to read the entire file to index the newlines as well for the array - or am I wrong about that too?

No need to reply if my assumptions are correct - thanks.

Cheers - L~R

In reply to Re: Re: Is it possible to alter a flat file in memory? by Limbic~Region
in thread Is it possible to alter a flat file in memory? by Anonymous Monk

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.