> Yes. I started writing my test program to see if hash
> collisions actually happen - and are not just a theoretical construct.
This should be no surprise. The birthday paradox, as Knuth points in in TAoCP,
makes it clear why collisions happen. Given 23 people in a room, there is a greater
that 50% chance that at least two have the same birthday.
Placing only 23 keys into a hash table with 365 entries with a perfectly
random hash function will probably result in at least one collision.
This should be no surprise. The birthday paradox, as Knuth points in in TAoCP, makes it clear why collisions happen. Given 23 people in a room, there is a greater that 50% chance that at least two have the same birthday.
Placing only 23 keys into a hash table with 365 entries with a perfectly random hash function will probably result in at least one collision.