How does a hash table work?

Question

I\'m looking for an explanation of how a hash table works - in plain English for a simpleton like me!

For example, I know it takes the key, calculates the hash (I a

Answer 1

How the hash is computed does usually not depend on the hashtable, but on the items added to it. In frameworks/base class libraries such as .net and Java, each object has a GetHashCode() (or similar) method returning a hash code for this object. The ideal hash code algorithm and the exact implementation depends on the data represented by in the object.