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 mp3.com 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 
mdimeo@cpan.org

***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.
