Forums Feature Suggestions $hget(hastable, possibly a long key).nid

Let's say you want to track IP's
Some IP's are customized IP's, I.e. very long strings
What's longer "23" or "Dg2ZJK.DtCGyM.virtual"
What's longer "475 or "I.really.love.to.see.the.stars.on.summer.nights"
I could check if user with IP "I.really.love.to.see.the.stars.on.summer.nights" has already chated with me or I could get my internal id of "I.really.love.to.see.the.stars.on.summer.nights" whick could be something like "475" o even "3728" and check If I have ever chated to the internal ip id "3728"
I could write (for instance)
%MyInternalId = $hget(MyIpHashTable, I.really.love.to.see.the.stars.on.summer.nights).nid and then
%MyKey = $me [ $+ [%MyInternalId]]
if ( $hget( MyChattedIpHashTable, %MyKey ) echo -a You already dealt with that IP
And then i could try to check if I dealt with the pair (ident,IP) or (nick,IP) or (Nick, ident, IP) without the need and the space of duplicating long custumised IP's or even short ones.
That gives the power of accessing a long item through a short one (nid) and using the short one to keep track of different combinations of it without the need of using the long one.
Did this make it someting clearer ?
I would be glad of trying to further explain if it didn't.