Hi,

I'm trying to overhaul my perl flat-file database into a speedy mod_perl / MySQL solution... I'm wondering about how to deal with my arrays, though. Currently I'm using: 
$timeold = <FILE>;
@datas = <FILE>;

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After reading the time, this neatly puts the remaining contents of the file into @datas which I can happily pass along to the user. New entries are just appended to the file with a new line character at the end: 
print FILE "$new_data\n";

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I do periodically remove the oldest lines (near the top) in an effort to keep the file from growing too large. So how could this type of array-like functionality be accomplished in my new design? Possibly with a SET? But this seems to have a maximum of 64 elements and there is no such limit the old way. I also thought of using one huge BLOB to store the data and then splitting it up after retrieval, but that would make for painful maintenance, I suppose. Or maybe I'm just overlooking something basic in database design (I'm new to this!).

Also, is this overhaul worth the effort? Will I see the speed increase I hope for?

Thanks for any suggestions!

In reply to arrays in database by dev2000

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