my $self = shift;
  my $cs   = shift;
  my $table = lc(shift);
  my $length = shift;
  if(!ref($cs) || !$cs->isa('Bio::EnsEMBL::Funcgen::CoordSystem')) {
    throw('CoordSystem argument is required.');
  }

  if(!$table) {
    throw('Table argument is required.');
  }

  my $cs_ids = $self->{'_feature_cache'}->{$table} || [];

  my ($exists) = grep {$cs->dbID() == $_} @$cs_ids;
  if( $exists ) {
    if( !$self->{'_max_len_cache'}->{$cs->dbID()}->{$table} ||
        $self->{'_max_len_cache'}->{$cs->dbID()}->{$table} < $length ) {
      my $sth = $self->prepare('UPDATE meta_coord ' .
                               "SET max_length = $length " .
                               'WHERE coord_system_id = ? ' .
                               'AND table_name = ? '.
                               "AND (max_length<$length ".
                               "OR max_length is null)");
      $sth->execute( $cs->dbID(), $table );
      $self->{'_max_len_cache'}->{$cs->dbID()}->{$table} = $length;
    }
    return;
  }

  #store the new tablename -> coord system relationship in the db
  #ignore failures b/c during the pipeline multiple processes may try
  #to update this table and only the first will be successful
  my $sth = $self->prepare('INSERT IGNORE INTO meta_coord ' .
                              'SET coord_system_id = ?, ' .
                                  'table_name = ?, ' .
			   'max_length = ? ' 
			  );

  $sth->execute($cs->dbID, $table, $length );

  #update the internal cache
  $self->{'_feature_cache'}->{$table} ||= [];
  push @{$self->{'_feature_cache'}->{$table}}, $cs->dbID();
  $self->{'_max_len_cache'}->{$cs->dbID()}->{$table} = $length;

  return;
}


1;

  my $self = shift;
  my $table = lc(shift); #case insensitive matching

  throw('Name argument is required') unless $table;

  if(!$self->{'_feature_cache'}->{$table}) {
    return [];
  }

  my @cs_ids = @{$self->{'_feature_cache'}->{$table}};
  my @coord_systems;

  my $csa = $self->db->get_FGCoordSystemAdaptor();

  foreach my $cs_id (@cs_ids) {
    my $cs = $csa->fetch_by_dbID($cs_id);

    if(!$cs) {
      throw("meta_coord table refers to non-existant coord_system $cs_id");
    }

    push @coord_systems, $cs;
  }

  return\@ coord_systems;

  my $self = shift;
  my $cs = shift;
  my $table = shift;

  if(!ref($cs) || !$cs->isa('Bio::EnsEMBL::Funcgen::CoordSystem')) {
    throw('Bio::EnsEMBL::Funcgen::CoordSystem argument expected');
  }

  throw("Table name argument is required") unless $table;

  return $self->{'_max_len_cache'}->{$cs->dbID()}->{lc($table)};

  my $class = shift;

  my $self = $class->SUPER::new(@_);

  #
  # Retrieve the list of the coordinate systems that features are stored in
  # and cache them
  #

	my $sql = 'SELECT mc.table_name, mc.coord_system_id, mc.max_length  FROM meta_coord mc';
	my @args;
	if($self->is_multispecies()) {
		$sql .= ' join coord_system cs using (coord_system_id) where cs.species_id =?';
		push(@args, $self->species_id());
	}
  
  my $sth = $self->prepare($sql);
  $sth->execute(@args);

  while(my ($table_name, $cs_id, $max_length) = $sth->fetchrow_array()) {
    $self->{'_feature_cache'}->{lc($table_name)} ||= [];
    push @{$self->{'_feature_cache'}->{lc($table_name)}}, $cs_id;
    $self->{'_max_len_cache'}->{$cs_id}->{lc($table_name)} = $max_length;
  }
  $sth->finish();

  return $self;