Ken Bloom wrote: > On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:22:05 -0500, Justus Ohlhaver wrote: > >>>> >> 1.Accordinng to Sebastian (above) 'Hash values are not unique. Two >> different strings can have the same hash value' >> >> 2.It may not serve my original purpose, which is speeding up database >> queries. > > I'm going to suggest what Todd Benson and Rolando Abarca suggested, > which > is to just work with strings in the database. Don't bother with > computing > some kind of (possibly unique) hash. Use a CREATE INDEX statement to > index the headline field, and you'll probably never notice a speed > difference between your roundabout method and feeding in the string > directly to the database. > > --Ken Thanks again for all you help everyone! I have made one small test already using an additional integer column instead of the original headline string. To convert the headline string into an integer value I used the .hash method. The db I'm using is mysql. Using a very small sample of entries (about 1000) I found virtually no difference at all in the time it took to check the entire table for existing entries when comparing using the string column vs. using the integer column for all searches. If there is any difference in time it takes it would be less than 1%. Considering that there is an additional computation (.hash method) being performed when using the integer column one could maybe assume that the latter - the integer column - by itself must slightly faster for the database to check. In any case I am going to stick with the original string column for the headline field for now. I will try to optimize the table indexing the headline field as suggested. One question regarding this: Can this be done from rails or are these mysql commands ('CREATE INDEX' etc.)? Thanks again for all the help! Justus and found virtually no difference in the time it took to compare about 100,000 rows in MySQL. using an integer value which was derived using 'headline'.hash Again, thanks everybody -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.