This module performs fast, database-like (SELECT with JOIN) operations on tab-delimited files, using the standard unix text processing utilities sort(1), join(1), cut(1), and others. It is often faster to dump out tables as tab-delimited files and manipulate them with this module than to do the manipulations inside a database. It is almost always faster and simpler than doing similar operations in raw perl using hash tables or the like. Especially significant is that it mostly relies on disk space for temporary files rather than large amounts of memory. This module was heavily used inside for manipulating large chunks of relational data. Given time constraints, the code is lacking much of the polish I would normally put on a CPAN module. In particular, there's no pod documentation or test suite. However, the comments at the top of the file and on the major method definitions have been sufficient in the past for other engineers to get started. If you find this module useful, please let me know. If you want to help, a good project would be to reformat the comments as POD inline documentation. Matt DiMeo ***NOTE*** If you email, please include the word TabTable in the subject. This will act as a magic password to move your email from the probably-spam bucket to the probably-not-spam bucket, resulting in a much quicker response. License ======= Except where otherwise specified, the software contained in this archive is Copyright (c) 2002-2003 Vivendi Universal Net USA. This software may be copied and redistributed under the same terms as Perl itself.