Re: Which is the better option?

[mrbbking]

If you decide to go with a single flat file along the lines of the example you used, you might consider Config::IniFiles or Config::Simple. Both insulate you from the drudgery of parsing that sort of file by hand.

Your file format would have to change a little, but it would be quite similar:

[pupil1]
maths=1_80:2_90
english=2_75:3_75
lastlogin=May 21

[pupil2]
maths=1_68:2_87
english=2_75:3_75
lastlogin=May 12

Then, something like this:

use Config::IniFiles;

my $cfg = new Config::IniFiles( -file => "/path/configfile.ini" );
my $pupil1_maths = $cfg->val( 'pupil1', 'maths' );
my @pupil1_maths = split /:/, $pupil1_maths;

might get you what you need.

But Config::IniFiles only reads the values - it does not offer a way to write/update them. I see that Config::Simple does have writing methods, so - if you go with this file format, you may want to take some time to look into that one.

I hope that helps you...