Wanted -- ambiguous lookup routine.

[Ken Nelson]

 I would have responded by mail but your address kept bouncing.



How about this approach:

   When you store your strings store them in some kind of fast access
   tree, B-tree, AVL, Splay, or perhaps a hashed structure.

   Save them with the string as the key, and with the initials as
   the key.

   example:

    /* bsearch is a unix function for inserting, or searching into a
       binary tree. You could replace this with any type of insert
       into a fast access structure.  Don't really try this code
       it won't work, it is here to explain the concept.
    */

       bsearch("John F. Kennedy",tree,"John F. Kennedy")
       bsearch("JFK",tree,"John F. Kennedy");



    This is pretty fast, and space could be minmized by putting
    pointers to strings into the tree instead of having a copy
    of the string in each node of the tree.


    This approach works for state abbreviations as well, it is really
    like aliasing when writing parsers, and scanners....



        Hope this helps,

                                Ken Nelson
                                Principal Engineer
                                Software Systems Design
                                3627 Padua Av.
                                Claremont, CA 91711
                                (714) 624-3402