Re: Sorting Problem

Dennis Gearon wrote:

> I agree with all of that except for one caveat:
>
>     all my reading, and just general off the cuff thinking, says that
> processing variable width characters SIGNIFICANTLY slows an
> application. It seems better to PROCESS fixed width characters (1,2,4
> byte), and TRANSMIT variable width characters (avoiding the null
> problem.)


I can and have solved that problem.  If you can assume utf-8 encoding
then there are available to you a bunch o tricks that takes this problem
away.

The other problem with memory (and hence cache) utilization of a wide
char only solution it far more significant.
Cache effects are the primary killer for performance in an app like a
database.

Anyhow, before making any "decisions" one should do a bunch of analysis.

Cheers
G