Summary

In this chapter, we have looked at hash tables. We looked at how to write a hashing function to turn string data into integer data. Then we looked at how we can use hashed keys to quickly and efficiently look up the value that corresponds to a key.

We also noticed how hashing functions are not perfect and that several strings can end up having the same hash value. This led us to look at collision resolution strategies.

We looked at growing a hash table and how to look at the load factor of the table in order to determine exactly when to grow the hash.

In the last section of the chapter, we studied symbol tables, which often are built using hash tables. Symbol tables allow a compiler or an interpreter to look up a symbol (variable, function, class, and so on) that has been defined and retrieve all information about it.

In the next chapter, we will talk about graphs and other algorithms.