14k lines of normal line sizes of maybe 100 chars isn't that bad. Consider reading the file into something like $hash{userid}.

which Keszler already said while I as usual did forget to check for new replies before create

Then, if you find the hash build time being significant wrt total runtime, while your 14k file is fairly static: consider a lightweight database like sqlite accessed via DBI.

If you've many independent script or parallel script runs, keeping the hash in memory in a separate process might also be worthwile (old-style client server or some shared memory setup - but that's somewhat like a coding challenge looking for a problem).

cu & HTH, Peter -- hints may be untested unless stated otherwise; use with caution & understanding.

In reply to Re^3: external file reference by jakobi
in thread external file reference by Spooky

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