Collision Resolution
Hash collisions are practically unavoidable when hashing a random subset of a large set of possible keys. For example, if 2,500 keys are hashed into a million buckets, even with a perfectly uniform random distribution, according to the birthday problem there is a 95% chance of at least two of the keys being hashed to the same slot.
Therefore, most hash table implementations have some collision resolution strategy to handle such events. Some common strategies are described below. All these methods require that the keys (or pointers to them) be stored in the table, together with the associated values.
Read more about this topic: Hash Table
Famous quotes containing the words collision and/or resolution:
“I know my fate. One day my name will be tied to the memory of something monstrous—a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision invoked against everything that had previously been believed, demanded, sanctified. I am no man, I am dynamite!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Some hours seem not to be occasion for any deed, but for resolves to draw breath in. We do not directly go about the execution of the purpose that thrills us, but shut our doors behind us and ramble with prepared mind, as if the half were already done. Our resolution is taking root or hold on the earth then, as seeds first send a shoot downward which is fed by their own albumen, ere they send one upward to the light.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)