title: Flat file databases
body: <p>What are the best practices around creating flat file database structures in PHP?</p>
  
  <p>A lot of more matured PHP flat file frameworks out there which I attempt to implement SQL-like query syntax which is over the top for my purposes in most cases. (I would just use a database at that point).</p>
  
  <p>Are there any elegant tricks out there to get good performance and features with a small code overhead?</p>