don't need dictionary's keys - hash table?

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Please don't top post. I had to fix that below.

>>> Any other thoughts or considerations are appreciated.
>> You could try and create a md5 sum of your strings and use that as key. It
>> _should_ be good enough, but I'm no crypto expert so take that with a grain
>> of salt.

 > It should be enough but it might be a little slower than hash(string).

hash alone won't be sufficient, as it is guaranteed to have to much 
collisions. The OP already figured that out, btw.

Diez