[Tutor] Filesystem vs Database vs Lucene

[Shitiz Bansal]

Hi,
I need to implement a system which stores Strings(average length 50 chars).
For every input String it would need to tell the user wether that string already exists in the system. It would also need to add that input String to the system if it did not exist. It will also be useful to know the last accessed datetime value of that string.
The number of strings is in millions and i also need persistence so keeping all Strings in memory is not an option.
I was wondering what would be the most efficient(timewise) solution for this riddle.
Would it be wiser to keep these Strings in an indexed column of the DB or would it be better to keep these strings as filenames on the filesystem in a folder hiearchy of some sort. I have no experience of indexers like lucene but i can also consider those if they are a better alternative than the other two.
Please also bear in mind the time required to insert the strings(for eg. i tried using a database but found the insertion time to be very high once i indexed the particular column.
Thanks,
Shitiz

 
---------------------------------
 Get your own web address.
 Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/attachments/20070326/3fd215d0/attachment.htm