From: Justus Ohlhaver <ohlhaver@...>
Date: 2008-11-12T23:39:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Convert text string i.e 'Peter' into integer ID

Hugh Sasse wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Nov 2008, Justus Ohlhaver wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> is there any method to quickly convert a text string such as 'Peter'
>> into an integer? (And vice versa?)
>> 
>> I am not asking about just changing the format (to_i). I'm looking for a
>> method thus can do the computation.
> 
> What properties do you want the string:integer relationship to have?
> The problem is too unbounded at the moment.
> 
> ["Peter", "James", "John", "Andrew"].index("Peter")
> 
> satisfies the constraints given so far.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Justus
> 
>         Hugh

Thanks for your help. No I need to turn the string which would usually 
be a headline ('Man lands on the moon') into a unique number. The 
purpose is to speed up my database queries when checking whether an 
entry with the same headline already exists in the db.
Justus


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