using Tsearch2 for chemical text

[Rajarshi Guha <rguha(at)indiana(dot)edu>]

Hi, I have a table with about 9M entries. The table has 2 fields: id  
and name which are of serial and text types respectively. I have a  
ordinary index on the text field which allows me to do searches in  
reasonable time. Most of my searches are of the form

select * from mytable where name ~ 'some text query'

I know that the Tsearch2 module will let me have very efficient text  
searches. But if I understand correctly, it's based on a language  
specific dictionary.

My problem is that the name column contains names of chemicals. Now  
for many cases this may simply be a number (1674-56-2) and in other  
cases it may be an alphanumeric string (such as (-)O-acetylcarnitine  
or 1,2-cis-dihydroxybenzoate). In some cases it is a well-known word  
(say viagra or calcium  chloride or pentathol).

My question is: will Tsearch2 be able to handle this type of text? Or  
will it be hampered by the fact that the bulk of the rows do not  
correspond to ordinary English

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Rajarshi Guha  <rguha(at)indiana(dot)edu>
GPG Fingerprint: 0CCA 8EE2 2EEB 25E2 AB04  06F7 1BB9 E634 9B87 56EE
-------------------------------------------------------------------
My Ethicator machine must have had a built-in moral
compromise spectral phantasmatron! I'm a genius."
                -Calvin