Database or large text file processing??

[Ian Leigh]

Hello again!

I wish to retrieve details about a particular file which are held in  
a text file, fairly large at about 264000 lines. The file contains  
details about many files but I only need to retrieve one file at a  
time. I am wondering about the best way to deal with this. The text  
file is set out in such a way that the filename is found first (with  
a specific character) and the information about follows. It is always  
in the same format but obviously some have more text than others (is  
this making sense) so there aren't specific field lengths etc..

I could try and bring that file in and use arrays I suppose but I  
don't know what effect that would have on performance and filesize. I  
don't know anything about using databases with rev but I wonder if  
using them would be a more elegant solution. I don't want to have to  
import the text file every time the program is run and the text file  
itself is subject to occasional updating. This led me to think that  
just search through the text file itself might make it a bit more  
robust but I could do with some advice about which way to go.

Thanks all!