Possible to sort and omit duplicates in a list using javas..

Hi All

I need to provide a function on my site whereby a user can enter a number of
ip addresses (one per line) so that I can submit this en masse to string
holding space in my db.

My problem is that I want to keep this list sorted as they enter the ip
addresses and I want to check for duplicates so that they don't enter the
same ip addresses twice.

I was going to do this as a simple form submit and add each entry as a
database row so that I could ORDER BY to get the sort and check for
duplicates on the submit, but this client/server submit really slows the
whole process. It would be great if I could order by and duplicate check on
the client side so that once done all I'm doing is one client/server 'post'
to the db.

Is this feasible?

Thanks

"Laphan" <admin.DeleteThis@DontSpam.com> wrote:

Wow, why didn't you post in even *more* groups?

> Hi All
>
> I need to provide a function on my site whereby a user can enter a
> number of ip addresses (one per line) so that I can submit this en
> masse to string holding space in my db.
>
> My problem is that I want to keep this list sorted as they enter the
> ip addresses and I want to check for duplicates so that they don't
> enter the same ip addresses twice.

The former is extremely annoying in my experience. I expect something I've
added to appear on the bottom of a list. If you keep a list sorted, people
might have to scan the whole list to see where it went.

As checking for duplicates, that should be a piece of cake in any
language, no need to keep it sorted. The keyword is a hash table (aka
associative array), I am sure JS does support something like that out of
the box. But read on...

> I was going to do this as a simple form submit and add each entry as a
> database row so that I could ORDER BY to get the sort and check for
> duplicates on the submit,

Assuming MySQL, you can safely insert duplicates by overwriting them with
ON DUPLICATE SET ...

If you put on top of your form: duplicates will be ignored, the user knows
what happens when he/she sees he's entered a duplicate. If he/she has
entered a duplicate it's already too late. I mean, you can remove it while
the line is entered, but the question is (to me): should you. And I would
say: no. (Also, without any warning the user wonders where the line went
she/he just entered).

--
John Bokma http://johnbokma.com/