How do HashTables deal with collisions?
I've heard in my degree classes that a HashTable will place a new entry into the 'next available' bucket if the new Key entry collides with another.
How would the HashTable still return the correct Value if this collision occurs when calling for one back with the collision key?
I'm assuming that the Keys are String type and the hashCode() returns the default generated by say Java.
If I implement my own hashing function and use it as part of a look-up table (i.e. a HashMap or Dictionary), what strategies exist for dealing with collisions?
I've even seen notes relating to prime numbers! Information not so clear from Google search.
Answer
Hash tables deal with collisions in one of two ways.
Option 1: By having each bucket contain a linked list of elements that are hashed to that bucket. This is why a bad hash function can make lookups in hash tables very slow.
Option 2: If the hash table entries are all full then the hash table can increase the number of buckets that it has and then redistribute all the elements in the table. The hash function returns an integer and the hash table has to take the result of the hash function and mod it against the size of the table that way it can be sure it will get to bucket. So by increasing the size, it will rehash and run the modulo calculations which if you are lucky might send the objects to different buckets.
Java uses both option 1 and 2 in its hash table implementations.