This is a real overkill, don't you think?

Also, what happens when you run the script the second time?
Who guarantees that the number you got (memory location) does not appear already somewhere else in the next records?

If he renumbers anyway, then any number can do. Instead of using perl's heap pointer, it will be easier to explicitly pick one.

Anyway, his problem seems to lie on the memory use more than the numbering scheme.

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