Please explain to me how you can hash n distinct strings into O(n) buckets in O(1) time. Please note that this process needs to work as n goes to infinity.
Hash tables are O(log n) structures when you don't hand-wave away the "compute a hash" part. The thing is, search trees are far worse than that in practice and you aren't hand-waving away the "compare two elements" part. That's where the real speed savings come from.
Hash tables are O(log n) structures when you don't hand-wave away the "compute a hash" part. The thing is, search trees are far worse than that in practice and you aren't hand-waving away the "compare two elements" part. That's where the real speed savings come from.