Update: I can't reproduce these results, so ignore this post. As merlyn notes, a single search against an array is going to be more efficient by examining the array than building a hash. If you're going to be doing multiple searches, though, you're probably better off building a hash.

A quick Benchmark shows the spot on my system to be at 5 elements (comparing a linear scan versus building a hash): 

 1   0 wallclock secs (-0.89 usr +  0.00 sys = -0.89 CPU)
 2   0 wallclock secs (-1.00 usr +  0.00 sys = -1.00 CPU)
 3  -1 wallclock secs (-0.67 usr +  0.00 sys = -0.67 CPU)
 4   1 wallclock secs (-0.35 usr +  0.01 sys = -0.34 CPU)
 5   1 wallclock secs (-0.05 usr +  0.01 sys = -0.04 CPU)
 6   0 wallclock secs ( 0.32 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.32 CPU)
 7   2 wallclock secs ( 0.68 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.68 CPU)
 8   2 wallclock secs ( 0.95 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.95 CPU)
 9   1 wallclock secs ( 1.33 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.33 CPU)
10   3 wallclock secs ( 1.70 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.70 CPU)

[download]
So yah, you're better off going with a linear scan unless you're going to be working with more than a handful of elements.

In reply to Re: Re: Re: Re: Zip Code Script by Fastolfe
in thread Zip Code Script by WebSmart

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