I don't know if this is the optimal solution, but there *is* a way you could use sort to speed things up: first number the items, then sort them by their initial value, remove dups, then sort again by their number. Finally, strip the numbers. Not the simplest, but it should be faster for large data than checking every item against every other.
HTH, Brian << Here is a function that I've written quite some time ago. It takes a list of text theList, separated by theitemDel, remove duplicate items in the list, and returns a new list without duplicate items. Unfortunately, this function running rather slowly on a large list (a few thousands records) - that is why I am posting here as a little "open source", Request For Comment: Make it faster guys! Remember, the sequence of the records cannot be changed, that say you are not likely to use sort. >> Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Info: http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/mailinglist.htm Please send bug reports to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, not this list.
