[2005] best structure for fastest search

[lplover2k]

i have a list of ids(about 7000)..... 31 ids belongs to group1,group2,group3 and so on....

i want to be able to search in which group an id is.....

what's the best structure to use to store the groups and ids??

[Jumpercables]

You have many different data structures to choose from in .NET 2.0 and I believe the use of generics performs the quickest. Here are some facts I found on some of the available data structures in 2.0.

• SortedList<T> - Shell Sort
  GeneralTree<T> - Heap Sort
  Graph<T> - Insertion Sort
  Heap<T> - Merge Sort
  Matrix - Odd-Even Transport Sort
  PascalSet - Quick Sort
  PriorityQueue<T> -Selection Sort
  SkipList<TKey, TValue> -Shaker Sort
  SortedList<T> - Shell Sort

Each sorting algorithm has a different runtime and different constraints that makes each perform better and worse.

[lplover2k]

i am using a list for each group which i think is not really a good idea... will try the structures u suggested but dun really know how to use them....

[lplover2k]

how can i use sorted list so that i enter the ids as key and value as the group id or name?? i use sortedl.add(id,group_id) and used "sortedl.item(id)" to retrieve the group_id but i get this error
"Failed to compare two elements in the array"

[lplover2k]

ok figured what was wrong!!! it's very fast now thanks!!!