Should this not all fit into memory then I'd suggest you solve the file based lookup problem first. Might want to research 'tries'.

A trie (from retrieval), is a multi-way tree structure useful for storing strings over an alphabet. It has been used to store large dictionaries of English (say) words in spelling-checking programs and in natural-language "understanding" programs...(1)
Try http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/CPAN/data/Tree-Trie/README.html

(1) from http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/tildeAlgDS/Tree/Trie.html.

--hsm

"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."

In reply to Re: word association problem by hsmyers
in thread word association problem by Anonymous Monk

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