That certainly is worth considering as it reduces the memory requirement to ~1/6th compared to the single hash method.

However, the penalty is that the lookups run ~30x more slowly, so a job that currently takes ~8hrs would require 10 days! Hence, it will be a last resort for when I cannot find anything quicker.

Single hash:

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Time::HiRes qw[ time ];

sub mem{ `tasklist /nh /fi "PID eq $$"` =~ m[(\S+ K)$] }

our $S //= 1;
my $scale = chr( ord('a') + $S - 1 );

print "Start: mem: ", mem;

my( $i, %lookup ) = 1;
$lookup{ $_ } = $i, $lookup{ $i++ } = $_ for 'aaaaa' .. $scale . 'zzzz
+';

print scalar keys %lookup;
print "Hash built: mem: ", mem;

my $start = time;
for( 'aaaaa' .. $scale . 'zzzz' ) {
    my $addr = $lookup{ $_ };
#    print $addr;
}
printf "Fetch by Name took %f seconds \n", time() - $start;

$start = time;
for( 1 .. 26**4 * $S ) {
    my $name = $lookup{ $_ };
#    print $name;
}
printf "Fetch by Addr took %f seconds \n", time() - $start;

print "Hash queried: check mem: ", mem;

__END__
C:\test>1112165-hash -S=1
Start: mem: 8,032 K
913952
Hash built: mem: 169,116 K
Fetch by Name took 0.217840 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 0.234923 seconds
Hash queried: check mem: 169,140 K

C:\test>1112165-hash -S=2
Start: mem: 8,008 K
1827904
Hash built: mem: 329,660 K
Fetch by Name took 0.445586 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 0.512336 seconds
Hash queried: check mem: 329,684 K

C:\test>1112165-hash -S=3
Start: mem: 7,984 K
2741856
Hash built: mem: 524,328 K
Fetch by Name took 0.699219 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 0.717473 seconds
Hash queried: check mem: 524,352 K

C:\test>1112165-hash -S=4
Start: mem: 7,972 K
3655808
Hash built: mem: 651,160 K
Fetch by Name took 0.976562 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 1.065514 seconds
Hash queried: check mem: 651,184 K
[download]

Sqlite & :memory:

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Time::HiRes qw[ time ];
use DBI;

use constant {
    CREATE => 'create table DB ( NAME test primary key not null, ADDR 
+int not null )',
    INSERT => 'insert into DB ( NAME, ADDR ) values ( ?, ? )',
    INDEX  => 'create index ADDR_IDX on DB ( ADDR );',
    QUERYBYNAME  => 'select ADDR from DB where NAME = ?',
    QUERYBYADDR  => 'select NAME from DB where ADDR = ?',
};

sub mem{ `tasklist /nh /fi "PID eq $$"` =~ m[(\S+ K)$] }

our $S //= 1;
my $scale = chr( ord('a') + $S - 1 );

print "Start: mem: ", mem;

my $dbh = DBI->connect( 'dbi:SQLite:dbname=:memory:','','' ) or die DB
+I::errstr;
$dbh->do( CREATE ) or die DBI::errstr;
print "DB created: mem: ", mem;


my $ins = $dbh->prepare( INSERT ) or die DBI->errstr;
my $i = 1;
for( 'aaaaa' .. $scale . 'zzzz' ) {
    $ins->execute( $_, $i++ );
}
print "DB populated: mem: ", mem;

$dbh->do( INDEX );
print "DB indexed: mem: ", mem;;

my $start = time;
my $sth = $dbh->prepare( QUERYBYNAME ) or die DBI->errstr;
for( 'aaaaa' .. $scale . 'zzzz' ) {
    $sth->execute( $_ ) or die DBI::errstr;
    my $ref = $sth->fetch;
    my $addr = $ref->[0];
#    print $addr;
}
printf "Fetch by Name took %f seconds \n", time() - $start;

$start = time;
$sth = $dbh->prepare( QUERYBYADDR ) or die DBI->errstr;
for( 1 .. 26**4 * $S ) {
    $sth->execute( $_ ) or die DBI::errstr;
    my $ref = $sth->fetch;
    my $name = $ref->[0];
#    print $name;
}
printf "Fetch by Addr took %f seconds \n", time() - $start;

print "DB queried: mem: ", mem;

__END__
C:\test>for /l %s in (1,1,4) do 1112165-sql -S=%s

C:\test>1112165-sql -S=1
Start: mem: 9,656 K
DB created: mem: 11,072 K
DB populated: mem: 30,796 K
DB indexed: mem: 39,384 K
Fetch by Name took 6.933570 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 7.299877 seconds
DB queried: mem: 39,412 K

C:\test>1112165-sql -S=2
Start: mem: 9,700 K
DB created: mem: 11,116 K
DB populated: mem: 50,088 K
DB indexed: mem: 65,400 K
Fetch by Name took 14.425735 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 14.653500 seconds
DB queried: mem: 65,428 K

C:\test>1112165-sql -S=3
Start: mem: 9,656 K
DB created: mem: 11,068 K
DB populated: mem: 69,544 K
DB indexed: mem: 92,320 K
Fetch by Name took 21.599556 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 21.844892 seconds
DB queried: mem: 92,348 K

C:\test>1112165-sql -S=4
Start: mem: 9,668 K
DB created: mem: 11,084 K
DB populated: mem: 88,800 K
DB indexed: mem: 119,372 K
Fetch by Name took 30.339751 seconds
Fetch by Addr took 30.587817 seconds
DB queried: mem: 119,400 K
[download]