I've searched the monestary and googled for a possible solution but nothing has come up that i'm not already doing.

I have a HUGE file that i need to parse and insert into a database ( ~334G of text ), and the current code is devouring memory and bringing the system to its knees.

the algorithm i'm currently using:

open( FILE, $filename )  
   or die " Can't open file ($filename):  $!\n";

while ( my $line = <FILE> ) {

   chomp $line;

   my @fields = split( /\t/, $line );

   ### do some added parsing, then insert
}
[download]

other nodes, like Quickest way of reading in large files?, reading (caching?) large files, mention the  while loop as the least memory intensive, but shy of trying to split the file into other, smaller files, is there a solution?

UPDATES:
OK, added clarifications.

1. the RDBMS in question is MySQL 4.1.10
2. there aren't any wrappers (like Class::DBI or Tie::DBI )
3. because i need to reorder the fields (well, i need to identify the MLSNumber (since it's real estate data ) and see if the data needs and ins/upd and if the data needs to be inserted into a view ... i don't see the MySQL loader being the right tool for the job ...

and for the rest of the loop:

## outside the loop
my @firstLines = qw/ AccessInstr PropType UID Acres MLSNum MediaSource
+ /;
my %firsts = map { $_ => 1 } @firstLines;

## the loop 
while ( my $line = <FILE> ) {

   chomp $line;

   my @fields = split( /\t/, $line );

   my $lines = 0;
   if ( $firsts{$fields[0]} ) {
      %lookup = map { $lines++ => $_ } @fields;
      @dbFields = values %lookup;
   }

   %reversed = reverse %lookup;
   $mlsField = $reversed{'MLSNum'};
   $mlsNumber = $fields[$mlsField];

   $officeListField = $reversed{'OfficeList'};
   my $officeList = $fields[$officeListField];

   $officeSellField = $reversed{'OfficeSell'};
   my $officeSell = $fields[$officeSellField];

   next if ( $firsts{$fields[0]} );

   while ( scalar( @fields ) != scalar( @dbFields ) ) {
      push ( @fields, undef );
   }

   $testSth->execute( $mlsNumber );
   my $inDB = $testSth->fetchrow();

   $jbgTestSth->execute( $mlsNumber );
   my $inJBGDB = $jbgTestSth->fetchrow();

   my @updateVals ;
   if ( $inDB ) {
      my $i = 0;
      foreach my $loop ( @fields ) {
         push( @updateVals, $loop ) unless $i == $mlsField;
         $i++;
      }

      push( @updateVals, $mlsNumber );
      $updSth->execute( @updateVals );

   } else {
      $insSth->execute( @fields ) 
          unless ( $fields[$mlsField] eq '' );

   }

   if ( ( $officeList && grep( /$officeList/, @offices ) ) 
     or ( $officeSell && grep( /$officeSell/, @offices ) ) ) {
      if ( $inJBGDB ) {
         $updSummary->execute( @updateVals ) 
           or warn "no update! : " . $dbh->errstr();
      } else {
         $insSummary->execute( @fields )
      }
   }

}
[download]

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