I have a question about the right database type to use with a script. First though, a bit of background:

I am using ActiveState's perl 5.8 on a win32 platform (Windows 2000 to be exact, but this will be portable between win32 platforms). I have access to and can install nearly any database available for win32 systems.

My script is gathering data from a couple of sources and storing it now in a few flat text files. I need to expand my script to grab more data and store it all. My estimations show that I will start with about 600 rows and about 20 columns of data. None of the data being grabbed will exceed 20 characters. I do expect the database to grow to somewhere around 75,000-100,000 rows of data with everything else remaining the same. Knowing the data that will be stored, I am leaning toward a relational database but my main concern with all of this is getting the data the fastest way possible.

I have not used perl to store or retrieve data from anything other than flat-files to this point. Is there a preference amongst the people here on the database to use? Is there a certain database type or structure that perl works with better than others? Any pointers to any place that this question has already been answered?

Thanks in advance for your help.

In reply to Selecting the right database for perl by TacoVendor

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