Id probably do something like

create table friends (
     friend_id            numeric(8)                      identity,
     first_name           varchar(32)                     not null,
     last_name            varchar(32)                     not null,
     hair_color           varchar(6)                      not null,
     constraint PK_FRIENDS primary key (friend_id)
)
go
create unique  index ui_no_dupes on friends (
     first_name ASC,
     last_name ASC,
     hair_color ASC
)
go
create   index i_first_name on friends (first_name ASC)
go
create   index i_last_name on friends (last_name ASC)
go
create   index i_hair_color on friends (hair_color ASC)
go
[download]

And then I'd use DBI something like this

my $connstr="dbi::SomeDB";
my $dbh=DBI->connect($connstr,$user,$password) or
        die "Can't open connection to $connstr";

my $array = $dbh->selectall_arrayref(<<SQL) || die $dbh->errstr;
    select 
          first_name,
          last_name,
          hair_color 
    from 
          friends
    where 
          first_name is like "j%"
    and 
          hair_color="brown"
SQL
print join"\n",map { join ",",@$_ } @$array;
[download]

Of course thats just me. YMMV. Oh, yeah, if it were a serious table then id put the hair color as a foreign key into a seperate table of allowed colors, for integrity purposes.

BTW, I dont really understand what the d++ is for. I would have thought you would want to iterate over your list and check each one to see if it matched your requirements. If it does then push them into a different array. Actually isnt that what grep does?

Of course you might optimise it by creating a hash of hair colors, each containing an array of elements that so match. That way you wouldnt have to search the whole list. Of course hashes arent really meant as indexes so you might want to stick with database technology, after all its to answer these types of questions that SQL and DB's were invented.

Yves / DeMerphq
--
When to use Prototypes?

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