processing faster with plpgsql by passing in more data

The appliction involves passing a list of strings to the database and
retrieving the results associated with those strings. If done one at a
time, I can process about 6 or 7 strings a second. But I may have up to
300 or 400 strings. I don't want the user to sit around waiting that long
and I'm looking for ways to speed this process up.

At present, the user uploads a file to the webserver via each string is
passed to the database one at a time and the result fetch back.

I was thinking of passing in all the strings, getting the result set
together and passing back all the results as a single result set, one for
each string passed in.

Comments? Ideas?

cheers
--
Dan Langille
The FreeBSD Diary - http://freebsddiary.org/ - practical examples