[Haskell-cafe] How to hold common data

Hello all, I'm new to haskell and was just wondering if there was any efficient or standard way to store and modify some sort of state data. The functional nature of haskell has me confused in this respect! Basically what I want to achieve is an interactive program that allows you to edit some tables, and thus hold some data. I dont' need to be spoonfed an answer, but a general guideline would be very helpful :) Thanks for any help you could provide! Regards, Scott