[erlang-questions] is storing complex objects in ets a good idea?

[Ulf Wiger]

2007/4/16, Ludovic Coquelle <lcoquelle@REDACTED>:
>
> Hi,
>
> In my application, I have to store a huge (but sparse) 2D matrix. I
> implemented that successfully using dict-of-dict kind of structure.
>
> I was then thinking to use a ets-of-dict structure: each line is a dict
> (containing all colum values) and I store each line (a dict) as an entry of
> a ets structure.
> But I read in the doc introduction of ets that "In the current
> implementation, every object insert and look-up operation results in one
> copy of the object.". Does this means that each access (even read) to an
> element of my matrix would imply a new dict copy?
>

Yes. While ets outperforms all other alternatives for random access for sets
of small objects (at least sets of size > 20), it doesn't necessarily do so
for
large objects.

But if a dict-of-dict structure works, you might want to consider just using
an
ordset ets table. If you have a tuple as the key in an ordset table,
ets:select(),
using a pattern where the first part of the key is bound, will be very
efficient.

You can also create ets tables where the tuples stored have only one element
-
the key. Mnesia doesn't let you do that, but ets does.

BR,
Ulf W
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