thanks!
On 5/19/05, Dean Fiala <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> A hash table is a dictionary that lets you use a unique key to
> retrieve a corresponding value.
>
> One of the nice things about a hash table is that the key and value
> can be of any object type.
>
> One of the nicer things about hash tables is that retrival time is not
> linearly related to the number of elements in the table. In other
> words, retrieving a value from a hash table with 100 elements is about
> the same as retrieving it from one with 100,000, since it doesn't have
> to search each element. Check out
> http://www.devx.com/vb2themax/Tip/18650 for more of an
> explanation.
>
> They come in handy when you need to store a bunch of related things
> and access them randomly instead of sequentially. Hence they are
> great for things like lookup tables, where you know you will need to
> retrieve a single value from a list.
>
> For example, I have a hashtable with a bunch of thermodynamic values
> associated with certain sequences of DNA bases.
>
> "ACGT", 2.3
> "ACGG", 1.2
> etc.
> "TTTA", -3.1
>
> The application only ever needs one specfic value, but it would be a
> pain in the ass to loop through an array or collection and find the
> matching key, but the hashtable makes it trivial to get the proper
> value.
>
> Dim dThermVal = mht(sSequence.Substring(0,4))
>
> mht is a hashtable
> and sSequence is a string of DNA bases
>
> Hope this gets you started in the right direction.
>
>
>
>
> On 5/19/05, Mike Appenzellar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Can someone give me a basic explanation of the purpose of a hash table
> > and maybe how it would benefit someone using one in a real life
> > situation? Too much to learn out there! I understand that email might
> > not be the correct format to explain this so any links to articles
> > would be great too!
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Dean Fiala
> Very Practical Software, Inc
> http://www.vpsw.com
>
> ________________________________
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
> To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AspNetAnyQuestionIsOk/
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AspNetAnyQuestionIsOk/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
