in reply to parsing large text files

Use whatever utilities are provided by your database. For example, Oracle and MySQL both have excellent loader utilities that will run at least 1000 times faster than anything Perl can do.

If you insist on using Perl, I would use Text::xSV to parse the files.

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom