This is kind of a misleading subject line. Personally, I would say that if you already have access to a SQL Server DB then you should stay with it. Trying to roll your own flat file DB would be a whole new can of worms. Why waste your time reinventing the wheel when you can work on the most efficient way to present your data to your users? Just my $.02.
-----Original Message----- From: Andy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sat 1/3/2004 1:29 PM To: beginners on perl.org Cc: Subject: Simple db - PERL vs MS SQL Server ---------------------------------------<snip>----------------------------------- Options (as I see them): 1. Status quo - using RDMS 2. Large delimited flat file containg all records (are there concurrency issues with locking, updating, etc) 3. Large xml file containing all records (imagine this would be fairly inefficient in addition to 2's issues) 4. Large numer of small text files, each containg details of a single record (files named after primary key of record)