Data Structures Discussion

Hashing

Discuss the advantages of hashing. Explain why hashing is not used more often, given these advantages. Post your response and respond to the posts below.

Post from Chris

When the number of entries are large the greatest advantage of using hashing over the binary or the sequential approaches is speed. Hash tables are efficient when the maximum size of entries are known, so that the hash table which is store in an array is a set size.

Post from Bill

Similar to a binary search, hashing requires data to be organized in a special manner. The data is organized is a table called the hash table. An advantage of using hashing is that the average linked list will be shorter. This is because the hash table is an array of pointers causing item insertion and deletion fairly easy. As long as the function is proficient, this will assist in a shorter search length. You have to know what the size of the array will be before creating a hash table. A downside to using hashing and also making it non-dynamic. Also depending on the size of the table, you may not even need it, or it may be very time consuming to create or increase a large one.