I would quite frankly suggest that you look for the simplest possible way to do this ... do it ... and then be done with it.   Unless you have a truly extraordinary amount of data (in which case you probably would be using an SQL table anyway), “the quickest and easiest (for you, for now) way to do” such a task, is the way to do it.   Simply make the intention of the code well-documented and clear, and test it thoroughly.