Random record access

[Monty]

Is there a strategy in Perl to randomly access a file of variable-
length records?

Thanks

 

[xhoster]

Is there a strategy in Perl to randomly access a file of variable-
length records?

Many. "seek" and "tell". Tie::File (and many other Tie modules, I'm
sure). All kinds of *DB* modules, like DB_File and DBM:eep.

And of course you could just slurp the file into an array or a hash,
if it isn't too big.

Xho

 

[Monty]

The file could get big, so loading it up into memory probably isn't a
good idea. I forgot to mention that it's a text file, so I wonder if
that makes a difference. In the meantime I'll look into those
possibilities you gave me.

Thanks

 

[Monty]

It appears that Tie::File is juuuuuust what I'm looking for!

Thanks