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For example, one could define a dictionary having a string "toast" mapped to the integer 42 or vice versa. The keys in a dictionary must be of an immutable Python type, such as an integer or a string, because under the hood they are implemented via a hash function. This makes for much faster lookup times, but requires keys not change.
A multimap generalizes an associative array by allowing multiple values to be associated with a single key. [9] A bidirectional map is a related abstract data type in which the mappings operate in both directions: each value must be associated with a unique key, and a second lookup operation takes a value as an argument and looks up the key ...
A small phone book as a hash table. In computer science, a hash table is a data structure that implements an associative array, also called a dictionary or simply map; an associative array is an abstract data type that maps keys to values. [3]
Terminal symbols are the concrete characters or strings of characters (for example keywords such as define, if, let, or void) from which syntactically valid programs are constructed. Syntax can be divided into context-free syntax and context-sensitive syntax. [7] Context-free syntax are rules directed by the metalanguage of the programming ...
Methods on objects are functions attached to the object's class; the syntax instance. method (argument) is, for normal methods and functions, syntactic sugar for Class. method (instance, argument). Python methods have an explicit self parameter to access instance data , in contrast to the implicit self (or this ) in some other object-oriented ...
The reference to the object is passed as a hidden argument, usually accessible from within the method as this. A parameter called by reference is syntactic sugar for technically passing a pointer as the parameter, but syntactically handling it as the variable itself, to avoid constant pointer de-referencing in the code inside the function.
A common alternative to using dictionaries is the hashing trick, where words are mapped directly to indices with a hashing function. [5] Thus, no memory is required to store a dictionary. Hash collisions are typically dealt via freed-up memory to increase the number of hash buckets [clarification needed]. In practice, hashing simplifies the ...
In Python, if a name is intended to be "private", it is prefixed by one or two underscores. Private variables are enforced in Python only by convention. Names can also be suffixed with an underscore to prevent conflict with Python keywords. Prefixing with double underscores changes behaviour in classes with regard to name mangling.