Conclusions

Abstract

In this book, you explored the hash table data structure. You learned how to map keys from a large space, in which you assume that keys are uniformly distributed, into a small space of table bins and considered a table’s performance as a function of the number of bins vs. how many keys you store in a table. You covered strategies for handling collisions when two or more different keys map to the same bin and the performance consequences of the choice of strategy. You also learned how to dynamically adjust the size of tables to avoid them filling up and incurring high runtime performance penalties as a consequence, while at the same ensuring that you do not allocate tables larger than necessary and thus incur memory penalties as a consequence.