Re: getting one line from file

david.perry@nerosworld.com (David Perry) writes: > Michael, > > > > > >> $info = grep "676" > > > > >> /tmp/somefile.txt; > > There are some minor tricks to help like > > $info = `cat /tmp/somefile.txt | head -9000 | grep '676'; > > but you would really be much better off putting 10 meg into a db engine > and index the dickens out of it. WIth only 10k records your response time > should be way < 1 second. It's possible that it's inconvenient to put this file into a database (perhaps it's a logfile generated by some other application). Apart from piping the file through 'head' you can also use the -F switch to grep (you're searching on a simple string not a regex) to speed things up. It might be worth caching the returned string and subsequently checking the file's modification time to see if the grep's really necessary. -robin -- Robin Vickery............................................... Planet-Three, 3A West Point, Warple Way, London, W3 0RG, UK Email: robin@planet-three.net Phone: +44 (0)870 729 5444