You may use the INSERT extended syntax for inserting several rows at once. In addition, if your table has several indexes (besides the primary key) you may use the (MySQL specific) command "DISABLE/ENABLE KEYS".

Here is a framework for your insertion.

$dbh->do(qq{ALTER TABLE $table DISABLE KEYS});

my $base_query = qq{INSERT INTO $table VALUES };
my $query      = $base_query;
my $count      = 0;
my $max_rows   = 10000; # adjust it to your needs

while ($line = <FILE>)
{
    my @values = something_from($line);

    $query .= "," if $count++;
    $query .= "(" 
           . join(",", map { $dbh->quote($_) } @values )    
           . ")";
    if ($count > $max_rows)
    {
        $dbh->do($query) 
            or die "something wrong ($DBI::errstr)";
        $query = $base_query;
        $count = 0;
    }
}

$dbh->do($query) if $count;

$dbh->do(qq{ALTER TABLE $table ENABLE KEYS});
[download]

See the manual for INSERT and for ALTER TABLE, and Speeding up the DBI for some more on related subjects.

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