FAQ: Hash Maps: Conceptual - Hash Functions

Frequently Asked Questions Python FAQ
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This community-built FAQ covers the “Hash Functions” exercise from the lesson “Hash Maps: Conceptual”.

Paths and Courses
This exercise can be found in the following Codecademy content:

Computer Science

Complex Data Structures

FAQs on the exercise Hash Functions

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Why is a Hash Map better than a dictionary?

It feels like we’re losing a lot of functionality and information and gaining only compression. Is that right? There must be better ways to compress information.

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Simple answer appears to be that it is not better or worse, but the same.

2 Likes
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when I was playing around the hash function interface. i see that the hash index generated can be equal to the array length. how is it possible. if the array length is 10 that means the biggest index it has is 9, but the hash function can generate a index as 10. would in it be overflowing? (which is what hash function guarantees not to do)?