Karl Jones: Created page with "In computer science, an '''associative array''', map, symbol table, or dictionary is an abstract data type composed of a collection of (key, value) pairs, such that each p..."

2016-08-29T17:32:59Z

Created page with "In computer science, an '''associative array''', map, symbol table, or dictionary is an abstract data type composed of a collection of (key, value) pairs, such that each p..."

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In [[computer science]], an '''associative array''', map, symbol table, or dictionary is an abstract data type composed of a collection of (key, value) pairs, such that each possible key appears at most once in the collection.

== Description ==

Operations associated with this data type allow:

* the addition of a pair to the collection
* the removal of a pair from the collection
* the modification of an existing pair
* the lookup of a value associated with a particular key

The [[dictionary problem]] is a classic computer science problem: the task of designing a data structure that maintains a set of data during 'search', 'delete', and 'insert' operations.

The two major solutions to the dictionary problem are a [[hash table]] or a [[search tree]].

In some cases it is also possible to solve the problem using directly addressed arrays, binary search trees, or other more specialized structures.

Many [[Programming language|programming languages]] include associative arrays as primitive data types, and they are available in software libraries for many others.

Content-addressable memory is a form of direct hardware-level support for associative arrays.

Associative arrays have many applications including such fundamental programming patterns as memoization and the decorator pattern.

== See also ==

* [[Key-value database]]
* [[Tuple]]
* [[Function (mathematics)]]
* [[Function (programming)]]
* [[JSON]]

== External links ==

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associative_array Associative array] @ Wikipedia

[[Category:Computer science]]

Associative array - Revision history

Karl Jones: Created page with "In computer science, an '''associative array''', map, symbol table, or dictionary is an abstract data type composed of a collection of (key, value) pairs, such that each p..."