DBF file indexer?

[Stephen Lime]

MapServer itself won't benefit from .dbf indexing, at least not much. Shapes
are processed sequentially with spatial searches driving this process. Each 
shape is then classified, but since the index (i.e. record number) is know an
index is useless. The one place it would help is with itemquery searches. In
that case I'd recommend using MapScript in combination with the perl modules
XBase or DBD::XBase. Both the perl modules can use indexes. I'm not inclined
to re-write any of the .dbf handling given that perl and the other scripting languages
are already so good at it.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst

Minnesota DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2937

>>> "Sean O'Hagan" <seano at metavera.com> 06/05/00 05:38PM >>>
Hello list,

Has anybody found a good utility for indexing those large DBF files that
store the attributes for shape files? Is there such a beast?

TIA,
Sean O'Hagan
Metavera Solutions, Inc.
192 Spadina Ave., Suite 405
Toronto, ON
M5T 2C2
Tel: (416) 504-8351
Fax: (416) 364-2636
Email: seano at metavera.com