title: What is the fastest way to read a large number of small files into memory?
body: <p>I need to read ~50 files on every server start and place each text file's representation into memory. Each text file will have its own string (which is the best type to use for the string holder?).</p>
  
  <p>What is the fastest way to read the files into memory, and what is the best data structure/type to hold the text in so that I can manipulate it in memory (search and replace mainly)?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>