Normally I would agree, and then I would proceed to write a simple app based on DBIx::Class talking to a SQLite database.

The problem is that databases are harder to understand than simple nested data structures, and if viffer is having trouble understanding a simple hash of hashes, then I think anything database related will be to hard.

Instead I think we need to point the OP to some tutorials that better explain nested data structures, and answer any questions he may have. Once that is understood we can move onto something more advanced like a database.