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- '\" $Header: /user6/ouster/tcl/man/RCS/Hash.3,v 1.9 93/07/23 08:30:53 ouster Exp $ SPRITE (Berkeley)
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- '\"----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- '\" @(#) Hash.3 26.1 93/10/22 SCOINC
- '\"
- '\" Copyright (C) The Santa Cruz Operation, 1992-1993.
- '\" This Module contains Proprietary Information of
- '\" The Santa Cruz Operation, and should be treated as Confidential.
- '\"----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- .so ../man.macros
- .HS Tcl_Hash tclc
- .BS
- .SH NAME
- .na
- Tcl_InitHashTable, Tcl_DeleteHashTable, Tcl_CreateHashEntry, Tcl_DeleteHashEntry, Tcl_FindHashEntry, Tcl_GetHashValue, Tcl_SetHashValue, Tcl_GetHashKey, Tcl_FirstHashEntry, Tcl_NextHashEntry, Tcl_HashStats \- procedures to manage hash tables
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .nf
- \fB#include <tcl.h>\fR
- .sp
- \fBTcl_InitHashTable\fR(\fItablePtr, keyType\fR)
- .sp
- \fBTcl_DeleteHashTable\fR(\fItablePtr\fR)
- .sp
- Tcl_HashEntry *
- \fBTcl_CreateHashEntry\fR(\fItablePtr, key, newPtr\fR)
- .sp
- \fBTcl_DeleteHashEntry\fR(\fIentryPtr\fR)
- .sp
- Tcl_HashEntry *
- \fBTcl_FindHashEntry\fR(\fItablePtr, key\fR)
- .sp
- ClientData
- \fBTcl_GetHashValue\fR(\fIentryPtr\fR)
- .sp
- \fBTcl_SetHashValue\fR(\fIentryPtr, value\fR)
- .sp
- char *
- \fBTcl_GetHashKey\fR(\fItablePtr, entryPtr\fR)
- .sp
- Tcl_HashEntry *
- \fBTcl_FirstHashEntry\fR(\fItablePtr, searchPtr\fR)
- .sp
- Tcl_HashEntry *
- \fBTcl_NextHashEntry\fR(\fIsearchPtr\fR)
- .sp
- char *
- \fBTcl_HashStats\fR(\fItablePtr\fR)
- .SH ARGUMENTS
- .AS Tcl_HashSearch *searchPtr
- .AP Tcl_HashTable *tablePtr in
- Address of hash table structure (for all procedures but
- \fBTcl_InitHashTable\fR, this must have been initialized by
- previous call to \fBTcl_InitHashTable\fR).
- .AP int keyType in
- Kind of keys to use for new hash table. Must be either
- TCL_STRING_KEYS, TCL_ONE_WORD_KEYS, or an integer value
- greater than 1.
- .AP char *key in
- Key to use for probe into table. Exact form depends on
- \fIkeyType\fR used to create table.
- .AP int *newPtr out
- The word at \fI*newPtr\fR is set to 1 if a new entry was created
- and 0 if there was already an entry for \fIkey\fR.
- .AP Tcl_HashEntry *entryPtr in
- Pointer to hash table entry.
- .AP ClientData value in
- New value to assign to hash table entry. Need not have type
- ClientData, but must fit in same space as ClientData.
- .AP Tcl_HashSearch *searchPtr in
- Pointer to record to use to keep track of progress in enumerating
- all the entries in a hash table.
- .BE
-
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- .PP
- A hash table consists of zero or more entries, each consisting of
- a key and a value.
- Given the key for an entry, the hashing routines can very quickly
- locate the entry, and hence its value.
- There may be at most one entry in a hash table with a
- particular key, but many entries may have the same value.
- Keys can take one of three forms: strings,
- one-word values, or integer arrays.
- All of the keys in a given table have the same form, which is
- specified when the table is initialized.
- .PP
- The value of a hash table entry can be anything that fits in
- the same space as a ``char *'' pointer.
- Values for hash table entries are managed entirely by clients,
- not by the hash module itself.
- Typically each entry's value is a pointer to a data structure
- managed by client code.
- .PP
- Hash tables grow gracefully as the number of entries increases,
- so that there are always less than three entries per hash bucket,
- on average.
- This allows for fast lookups regardless of the number of entries
- in a table.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_InitHashTable\fR initializes a structure that describes
- a new hash table.
- The space for the structure is provided by the caller, not by
- the hash module.
- The value of \fIkeyType\fR indicates what kinds of keys will
- be used for all entries in the table. \fIKeyType\fR must have
- one of the following values:
- .IP \fBTCL_STRING_KEYS\fR 25
- Keys are null-terminated ASCII strings.
- They are passed to hashing routines using the address of the
- first character of the string.
- .IP \fBTCL_ONE_WORD_KEYS\fR 25
- Keys are single-word values; they are passed to hashing routines
- and stored in hash table entries as ``char *'' values.
- The pointer value is the key; it need not (and usually doesn't)
- actually point to a string.
- .IP \fIother\fR 25
- If \fIkeyType\fR is not TCL_STRING_KEYS or TCL_ONE_WORD_KEYS,
- then it must be an integer value greater than 1.
- In this case the keys will be arrays of ``int'' values, where
- \fIkeyType\fR gives the number of ints in each key.
- This allows structures to be used as keys.
- All keys must have the same size.
- Array keys are passed into hashing functions using the address
- of the first int in the array.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_DeleteHashTable\fR deletes all of the entries in a hash
- table and frees up the memory associated with the table's
- bucket array and entries.
- It does not free the actual table structure (pointed to
- by \fItablePtr\fR), since that memory is assumed to be managed
- by the client.
- \fBTcl_DeleteHashTable\fR also does not free or otherwise
- manipulate the values of the hash table entries.
- If the entry values point to dynamically-allocated memory, then
- it is the client's responsibility to free these structures
- before deleting the table.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_CreateHashEntry\fR locates the entry corresponding to a
- particular key, creating a new entry in the table if there
- wasn't already one with the given key.
- If an entry already existed with the given key then \fI*newPtr\fR
- is set to zero.
- If a new entry was created, then \fI*newPtr\fR is set to a non-zero
- value and the value of the new entry will be set to zero.
- The return value from \fBTcl_CreateHashEntry\fR is a pointer to
- the entry, which may be used to retrieve and modify the entry's
- value or to delete the entry from the table.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_DeleteHashEntry\fR will remove an existing entry from a
- table.
- The memory associated with the entry itself will be freed, but
- the client is responsible for any cleanup associated with the
- entry's value, such as freeing a structure that it points to.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_FindHashEntry\fR is similar to \fBTcl_CreateHashEntry\fR
- except that it doesn't create a new entry if the key doesn't exist;
- instead, it returns NULL as result.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_GetHashValue\fR and \fBTcl_SetHashValue\fR are used to
- read and write an entry's value, respectively.
- Values are stored and retrieved as type ``ClientData'', which is
- large enough to hold a pointer value. On almost all machines this is
- large enough to hold an integer value too.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_GetHashKey\fR returns the key for a given hash table entry,
- either as a pointer to a string, a one-word (``char *'') key, or
- as a pointer to the first word of an array of integers, depending
- on the \fIkeyType\fR used to create a hash table.
- In all cases \fBTcl_GetHashKey\fR returns a result with type
- ``char *''.
- When the key is a string or array, the result of \fBTcl_GetHashKey\fR
- points to information in the table entry; this information will
- remain valid until the entry is deleted or its table is deleted.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_FirstHashEntry\fR and \fBTcl_NextHashEntry\fR may be used
- to scan all of the entries in a hash table.
- A structure of type ``Tcl_HashSearch'', provided by the client,
- is used to keep track of progress through the table.
- \fBTcl_FirstHashEntry\fR initializes the search record and
- returns the first entry in the table (or NULL if the table is
- empty).
- Each susequent call to \fBTcl_NextHashEntry\fR returns the
- next entry in the table or
- NULL if the end of the table has been reached.
- A call to \fBTcl_FirstHashEntry\fR followed by calls to
- \fBTcl_NextHashEntry\fR will return each of the entries in
- the table exactly once, in an arbitrary order.
- It is unadvisable to modify the structure of the table, e.g.
- by creating or deleting entries, while the search is in
- progress.
- .PP
- \fBTcl_HashStats\fR returns a dynamically-allocated string with
- overall information about a hash table, such as the number of
- entries it contains, the number of buckets in its hash array,
- and the utilization of the buckets.
- It is the caller's responsibility to free the result string
- by passing it to \fBfree\fR.
- .PP
- The header file \fBtcl.h\fR defines the actual data structures
- used to implement hash tables.
- This is necessary so that clients can allocate Tcl_HashTable
- structures and so that macros can be used to read and write
- the values of entries.
- However, users of the hashing routines should never refer directly
- to any of the fields of any of the hash-related data structures;
- use the procedures and macros defined here.
-
- .SH KEYWORDS
- hash table, key, lookup, search, value
-