checking a list of words against a column

I am trying to create a function that, based on the real name of a person generates a unique user-name that is based on the users real name and is no longer than 8 characters.

given that I have created an algorithm for creating a list of candidate usernames I wonder how I should go about checking this list against the database. the table containing the usernames is very large.

for now I have written a routine that generates a list of space-separated candidate usernames and returns this list as a varchar2 string.

also; any hints on how I should ensure that I don't check the same candidate username twice? (my current algorithm in some cases yields several identical candidate usernames).

-Bjørn
--

 Bjørn Borud <borud_at_guardian.no> | "The Net interprets censorship  <URL:http://www.pvv.unit.no/~borud/> | as damage and routes around it."  UNIX person, one of "them" | - John Gilmore Received on Wed Aug 20 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT