Optimising a String Matching query for Speed.

[Joey JJ]

Hello,

I'm trying to write a PROC that will be matching strings between tables.

At a most basic level it would look something like this

SELECT DISTINCT t.String
FROM TableOfStoredStrings t
JOIN AssortmentOfStrings s ON s.String = t.String

I will know the table of Stored Strings - as they will be previous written in the DB.

The second Table will be passed at Run Time. The table will have varying number of Rows (likely several thousand), and will be of varying length and will likely have duplicates.

Can anyone suggest how I might optimise this query for speed?

Should I convert the data type to a set length, e.g. varchar(100)

Will sorting both tables prior to running the above help?


Thanks for any help you can give.

Joey