Space filling means that there is no portion of the map which does not have a block associated with it (no gaps). In Geo/ShapeFile, it says it only loads data as it needs it, so it's possible that only some fraction of the 6GB need be loaded for your problem - might be worth running a test script to check.

Knowing how G-men think, the QuadTree approach Joost suggests is definitely worth trying - IIRC you essentially build a tree of hierarchical rectangles. You can then use this minimal information (which should certainly be less than 6GB) to compare instead of reloading point data in your loop.

In reply to Re^3: Need an intelligent join algorithm for matching coordinates to shapefiles (.shp) by kennethk
in thread Need an intelligent join algorithm for matching coordinates to shapefiles (.shp) by whakka

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