If your host is a UNIX-based server, then you can use the Berkely-style database that's inherent to the system. DBD::File is where you want to go, as referenced above.

Since you're just storing records in a flat table (I'm assuming you don't want a lot of tables - Database guys love them, but unless you're comfortable with DB normalization, I'd stick with a flat table. - http://www.devshed.com has a good lesson on database structure, but their website is broken ATM and I can't get you a direct link.

The other possibility is to just write all your fields to a delimited text file. Just append to the file every time the form is submitted, and then you can open your datafile up in a spreadsheet and sort to your heart's content.

Here's a tweakable example. I fully admit that this code can be optimized and it *will* have to be edited for your form. I'm doing this on purpose wo you learn how it works better. =) 

use CGI;

$outputString = param('formfield1') . "|" . param('formfield2');

open OUTPUTFILE, "filename.txt";
print OUTPUTFILE $outputString . "\n";

[download]
I'd also spit them out a second page saying thanks for filling out your 100-field form. One possible easy way is HTML::Template. Hope this helps.

UPDATE: Corrected bad CPAN Link

In reply to Yes... sort of. by khudgins
in thread Can Perl create its own searchable db? by Bismark

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