Hi, @skalogryz, @wp!
Thanks for your helpful suggestions!
@skalogryz's solution is in fact elegant and easier to understand (I like the idea of "Search is sorting, sorting is search").
In another application, I have been able to handle successfully stringlists of about two thousands records, so I do agree to @wp that such lists can in fact be used in real applications without any (or too much) degradation in performance,
Thank you ALL very much!
With best wishes,