The problem is that searching large numbers of files becomes very inefficient if you have to search a large string or strings. The best way to do this I think is to create a short hash - no more than 3 hex characters - from the full path, then index that and use it as the first part of your search. You might possibly get 2 or 3 files that have the same 3-character key, but these will require very little processing time for checking the full path. 
SELECT FROM mytable WHERE hashkey = '4ea' && path = '/my/path/to/file/
+isthis.dat';

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With hashkey indexed. 
use Digest::MD5 qw(md5 md5_hex md5_base64);

my $path = '/my/path/to/file/isthis.dat';
my $hashkey = substr(md5_hex($path), 0, 3);

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EDIT: I should also note here that variable-width fields can't be indexed in their entirety. You have to define a width for your key, which means either leaving out part of some variable-width fields or padding most of them (which defeats the whole purpose of a variable-width field). It's much better to use a CHAR(3) key (see above).

In reply to Re: Key to use for files in db! by TedPride
in thread Key to use for files in db! by Ace128

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