If you think that you might want to use hierarchical data, or if you want to add lots of features to the program in the future, I would second the recommendation for XML. If you to start with something even more simple, I recommend Data::Table, which has a really simple interface, works with CSV files and databases, supports sorting, math operations on a column, HTML rendering, etc.

Here's a snippet to get you going:

use strict;
use Data::Table;
 
my $t= Data::Table::fromCSV("phonebook.csv");
$t->sort('lastname', 1, 0);   # Sort by col 'lastname', alphabetic, as
+cending
print $t->html;               # Print out phone book as an HTML table.
[download]

Where the file 'phonebook.csv' contains:

lastname,firstname,phone,TZ,date_entered
Wall,Larry,555-1212,PST,4/3/2001
Schwartz,Randal,555-1212,PST,4/1/2001
[download]

It emits HTML for this table:

lastname	firstname	phone	TZ	date_entered
Schwartz	Randal	555-1212	PST	4/1/2001
Wall	Larry	555-1212	PST	4/3/2001

I think you have chosen a very nice project for learning perl.

It should work perfectly the first time! - toma