As I am working the my FDA drug import I am looking for matches already in the VA DRUG file. I make a first pass looking for matches via NDC. This gets matches for about 50% of the some 280,000 entries. For the rest I have to do a brute-force search.
So for each unmatched entry I scan through the entire VA PRODUCT file (about 16,000 entries), looking for an entry that contains matching ACTIVE INGREDIENTS fields. This takes abuot 2-3 seconds which is quick for one scan, but SLOW when processing 100,000 FDA entries. So the obvious solution is to create an index that avoids repeatitive scanning. But the ACTIVE INGREDIENTS field is a multiple (i.e. a subfile), containing all the ingredients in the drug. So Darvocet N-100 would contain ingredients :PROPOXEPHENE, and ACETAMINOPHEN So an index of a subfile would need to contain IENS's, like this: ACETAMINOPHEN: 1,1234, ACETAMINOPHEN: 2,4567, PROPOXEPHENE: 2,1234, PROPOXEPHENE: 1,3246, PROPOXEPHENE: 2,4567, This would indicate that VA PRODUCT records: 1234 and 4567 contain both PROPOXEPHENE, and ACETAMINOPHEN, but that record 3246 contains just PROPOXEPHENE. But I don't think that Fileman stores indexes this way. Is there another way that this is done or another way that this problem is handled? If not, I could just create a custom array/global that stores this custom style of index as described above. Thanks Kevin ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid0944&bid$1720&dat1642 _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members