From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2005-07-07T19:15:47+09:00
Subject: Re: how quick is .split()?

luke wrote:
> hi all
>
> i'm about to enter 300-500 words into a mysql database, which a rails
> app will retrieve. i'm wondering which method would be quicker for a
> server to perform:
>
> a) retrieving individual words from 300-500 rows in the database, one
> to a row.
>
> or
>
> b) have only one row in the table and this is a concatenated string
> of all the keywords, which is .split(), with ruby retrieving the
> values that way.
>
> i was about to ask this to the mysql group, but then thought that
> it's more a question about the speed of the ruby .split() method
> perhaps :)

Honestly, I would not make performance the paramount criterium here.  As
you describe it it sounds as words must be processed separately so I'd
store them as such in the db.  Advantages:

 - you can create an index on the word column if you need that (maybe
later)

 - rows don't grow too long

But maybe the database is not the proper place to store these words at
all.  Maybe marshalling an array into a file is better?  Are these words
constant?  Are they part of the application?  These are the questions I'd
ask.

Kind regards

    robert