Index mapping

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Index mapping (or direct addressing, or a trivial hash function ) in computer science describes using an array, in which each position corresponds to a key in the universe of possible values. [1] The technique is most effective when the universe of keys is reasonably small, such that allocating an array with one position for every possible key is affordable. Its effectiveness comes from the fact that an arbitrary position in an array can be examined in constant time.

Contents

Applicable arrays

There are many practical examples of data whose valid values are restricted within a small range. A trivial hash function is a suitable choice when such data needs to act as a lookup key. Some examples include:

Examples

Using a trivial hash function, in a non-iterative table lookup, can eliminate conditional testing and branching completely, reducing the instruction path length of a computer program.

Avoid branching

Roger Sayle gives an example [2] of eliminating a multiway branch caused by a switch statement:

inlineboolHasOnly30Days(intm){switch(m){case4:// Aprilcase6:// Junecase9:// Septembercase11:// Novemberreturntrue;default:returnfalse;}}

Which can be replaced with a table lookup:

inlineboolHasOnly30Days(intm){staticconstboolT[]={0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,1,0,1,0};returnT[m-1];}

Related Research Articles

In computer science, an array is a data structure consisting of a collection of elements, of same memory size, each identified by at least one array index or key. An array is stored such that the position of each element can be computed from its index tuple by a mathematical formula. The simplest type of data structure is a linear array, also called one-dimensional array.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binary search</span> Search algorithm finding the position of a target value within a sorted array

In computer science, binary search, also known as half-interval search, logarithmic search, or binary chop, is a search algorithm that finds the position of a target value within a sorted array. Binary search compares the target value to the middle element of the array. If they are not equal, the half in which the target cannot lie is eliminated and the search continues on the remaining half, again taking the middle element to compare to the target value, and repeating this until the target value is found. If the search ends with the remaining half being empty, the target is not in the array.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hash function</span> Mapping arbitrary data to fixed-size values

A hash function is any function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size to fixed-size values, though there are some hash functions that support variable length output. The values returned by a hash function are called hash values, hash codes, hash digests, digests, or simply hashes. The values are usually used to index a fixed-size table called a hash table. Use of a hash function to index a hash table is called hashing or scatter storage addressing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hash table</span> Associative array for storing key-value pairs

In computing, a hash table is a data structure that implements an associative array, also called a dictionary or simply map, which is an abstract data type that maps keys to values. A hash table uses a hash function to compute an index, also called a hash code, into an array of buckets or slots, from which the desired value can be found. During lookup, the key is hashed and the resulting hash indicates where the corresponding value is stored.

In computer science, an associative array, map, symbol table, or dictionary is an abstract data type that stores a collection of pairs, such that each possible key appears at most once in the collection. In mathematical terms, an associative array is a function with finite domain. It supports 'lookup', 'remove', and 'insert' operations.

In computing, inline expansion, or inlining, is a manual or compiler optimization that replaces a function call site with the body of the called function. Inline expansion is similar to macro expansion, but occurs during compilation, without changing the source code, while macro expansion occurs prior to compilation, and results in different text that is then processed by the compiler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perfect hash function</span> Hash function without any collisions

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In computer science, a lookup table (LUT) is an array that replaces runtime computation with a simpler array indexing operation, in a process termed as direct addressing. The savings in processing time can be significant, because retrieving a value from memory is often faster than carrying out an "expensive" computation or input/output operation. The tables may be precalculated and stored in static program storage, calculated as part of a program's initialization phase (memoization), or even stored in hardware in application-specific platforms. Lookup tables are also used extensively to validate input values by matching against a list of valid items in an array and, in some programming languages, may include pointer functions to process the matching input. FPGAs also make extensive use of reconfigurable, hardware-implemented, lookup tables to provide programmable hardware functionality. LUTs differ from hash tables in a way that, to retrieve a value with key , a hash table would store the value in the slot where is a hash function i.e. is used to compute the slot, while in the case of LUT, the value is stored in slot , thus directly addressable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreach loop</span> Control flow statement for traversing items in a collection

In computer programming, foreach loop is a control flow statement for traversing items in a collection. foreach is usually used in place of a standard for loop statement. Unlike other for loop constructs, however, foreach loops usually maintain no explicit counter: they essentially say "do this to everything in this set", rather than "do this x times". This avoids potential off-by-one errors and makes code simpler to read. In object-oriented languages, an iterator, even if implicit, is often used as the means of traversal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radix tree</span> Data structure

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open addressing</span> Hash collision resolution technique

Open addressing, or closed hashing, is a method of collision resolution in hash tables. With this method a hash collision is resolved by probing, or searching through alternative locations in the array until either the target record is found, or an unused array slot is found, which indicates that there is no such key in the table. Well-known probe sequences include:

In computer programming languages, a switch statement is a type of selection control mechanism used to allow the value of a variable or expression to change the control flow of program execution via search and map.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recursion (computer science)</span> Use of functions that call themselves

In computer science, recursion is a method of solving a computational problem where the solution depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem. Recursion solves such recursive problems by using functions that call themselves from within their own code. The approach can be applied to many types of problems, and recursion is one of the central ideas of computer science.

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In computer programming, a branch table or jump table is a method of transferring program control (branching) to another part of a program using a table of branch or jump instructions. It is a form of multiway branch. The branch table construction is commonly used when programming in assembly language but may also be generated by compilers, especially when implementing optimized switch statements whose values are densely packed together.

This comparison of programming languages (associative arrays) compares the features of associative array data structures or array-lookup processing for over 40 computer programming languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Control table</span> Data structures that control the execution order of computer commands

Control tables are tables that control the control flow or play a major part in program control. There are no rigid rules about the structure or content of a control table—its qualifying attribute is its ability to direct control flow in some way through "execution" by a processor or interpreter. The design of such tables is sometimes referred to as table-driven design. In some cases, control tables can be specific implementations of finite-state-machine-based automata-based programming. If there are several hierarchical levels of control table they may behave in a manner equivalent to UML state machines

Multiway branch is the change to a program's control flow based upon a value matching a selected criteria. It is a form of conditional statement. A multiway branch is often the most efficient method of passing control to one of a set of program labels, especially if an index has been created beforehand from the raw data.

In computer science, tabulation hashing is a method for constructing universal families of hash functions by combining table lookup with exclusive or operations. It was first studied in the form of Zobrist hashing for computer games; later work by Carter and Wegman extended this method to arbitrary fixed-length keys. Generalizations of tabulation hashing have also been developed that can handle variable-length keys such as text strings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiplicative binary search</span> Binary search variation with simplified midpoint calculation

In computer science, multiplicative binary search is a variation of binary search that uses a specific permutation of keys in an array instead of the sorted order used by regular binary search. Multiplicative binary search was first described by Thomas Standish in 1980. This algorithm was originally proposed to simplify the midpoint index calculation on small computers without efficient division or shift operations. On modern hardware, the cache-friendly nature of multiplicative binary search makes it suitable for out-of-core search on block-oriented storage as an alternative to B-trees and B+ trees. For optimal performance, the branching factor of a B-tree or B+-tree must match the block size of the file system that it is stored on. The permutation used by multiplicative binary search places the optimal number of keys in the first (root) block, regardless of block size.

References

  1. Cormen, Thomas H. (2009). Introduction to algorithms (3rd ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. pp. 253–255. ISBN   9780262033848 . Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  2. Sayle, Roger Anthony (June 17, 2008). "A Superoptimizer Analysis of Multiway Branch Code Generation" (PDF). Proceedings of the GCC Developers' Summit: 103–116. Retrieved 26 November 2015.