The serialize is there to uncomment if you want it to dump the doc to check. And you're right, doing the file directly (no filehandle) is probably faster. The *DATA handle is just easy to test/demo because it lets you put the data into the test script. Good luck. It is worth the effort to continue to pick up some Perl. It's not that hard, you'll get great help here and on many lists, and it can boost productivity in a menagerie of tasks.