What is a hash map in programming and where can it be used

Question

I have often heard people talking about hashing and hash maps and hash tables. I wanted to know what they are and where you can best use them for.

Answer 1

Basically, a HashMap allows you to store items with identifiers. They are stored in a table format with the identifier being hashed using a hashing algorithm.

Typically they are more efficient to retrieve items than search trees etc.

You may find this helpful: http://www.relisoft.com/book/lang/pointer/8hash.html

Hope it helps,

Chris