associative array

(data structure)

Definition: A collection of items that are randomly accessible by a key, often a string.

See also array.

Note: Implementation: the access method must essentially search for a match. The simplest, but slowest, implementation is to do a linear search over the array for a match.

If that is too slow, and you access the array by number, too, you must create and maintain an index into the array. The index is a dictionary, organized by the content, of indexes into the array.

Author: PEB

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Entry modified 17 December 2004.
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Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "associative array", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Paul E. Black, ed. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY) Available from: https://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/assocarray.html