AutoHotkey Community

[Tekl]

Hello,

has anyone checked the performance of different ways how to search through a big wordlist?

I think there are three ways:

1. The list is in a variable with delimiters and searched with a ParseLoop
2. The list is in a file and searched with a FileLoop
3. The list is stored in an array and is searched with a normal Loop

Which way is the fastest or are there different ways?

Tekl

[jonny]

Technically, the fastest way would be to store it in AHK itself, in a hypothetical array using variable initializations. Then, just use a regular loop with a_index.

[Guest]

I have a large CSV file that I read with FileRead and parse with IfInString and StringGetPos. It takes a little more effort if there are multiple instances of this string. The best thing is to set up a trial run and see what works for you. Remeber to set SetBatchLines to -1.

[Chris]

Because uncached files are very slow to read from, avoiding disk access where possible should speed up the operation.

When storing data in memory rather than on disk, I suspect a parsing loop would be faster than arrays, especially if the number of fields/items is very large.

[Tekl]

Hi,

now I mixed up Arrays and single Variables. Because I want to search for starting letters I created Arrays with the starting letters in the name.

Var_Ab contains all Words starting with Ab like: abuse, abort ...
Var_Co contains all Words starting with Co like: cold, common ...

so I don't have to search one big variable. It's significant faster than the other ways I tried. Only creating the arrays is slower for the first time.

Thanks for the hints.

To use StringGetPos I need an enhancement of this command, so that I can specify form wich position the search will start.

StringGetPos, OutputVar, InputVar, SearchText [, L#|R#, startPos]

Tekl

[Chris]