Searching and Hashing
9. Glossary
- binary search
search method in which one repeatedly divides a sorted data structure in half and determines if the item is in one half of it until the item is found or deemed not in the data.
- chaining
a method of collision resolution in which each slot in a hash table holds a reference to a collection of items
- collision
a conflict of having two or more items sharing the same slot in a hash table
- collision resolution
a systematic method for resolving hash table collisions
- clustering
items being mapped in a hash table near each other because of collisions and linear probing resulting in items with collisions being put together
- folding method
a method for constructing a hash function by dividing the item into equally sized pieces and then adding the pieces together to get a hash value. The value is then divided by the size of the hash table and the remainder becomes the slot for that item.
- hashing
generating a value given an input that can be used to find the input by searching for the value.
- hash function
the mapping between an item and its slot in a hash table
- hash table
a collection of items which are stored in such a away as to make it easy to find them
- linear probing
an open addressing technique in which each slot is visited one at a time systematically
- load factor
Represents how full a hash table is. Its the number of items in a hash table divided by the size of the table.
- map
an associate data type that stores key-data pairs
- mid-square method
a method for constructing a hash function by squaring the item and then using some portion of the result.
- open addressing
a collision resolution that tries to find the next open slot/address in the hash table
- perfect hash function
a hash function that maps each item to a unique hash slot
- quadratic probing
a variation of linear probing in which rehashing is done using successive squared values
- rehashing
putting an item into a hash table after a collision
- searching
the algorithmic process of finding a particular item in a collection of items
- sequential search
search method in which one follows the underlying ordering of items in a collection of data to find a specific item
- slot
a position in a hash table