Hash Tables & Files

[scream2ice]

hi everyone
Im working on a program that includes hash tables and files.
What i'm doing is that I save the information (Name, Student ID, Address, Phone No.) of some students in a text file.
I use a hash table to work on the students' information.
Things like showing the information of a particular student or deleting their info or.....
My question is, I have used a usual implementaion of HashTable (with map) so far....but i feel that it wouldn't work
Do you think that I should use SerializableHash to be able to edit the contents of the text file?
I'm a bit lost here......How can i be able to access the contents of the file and have them as Hash Table?

[JamesCherrill]

You'll probably have to read the file into the table when the app starts, and re-write the edited data back at the end. You can do direct-access in-place updates of a file, but it's not easy or particularly safe - not recommended.
Where does the map come into it?