Which of the following statements about open addressing is false?a)Ope...
Open addressing can handle a limited number of elements due to the need to find the next available slot. Separate chaining can handle more elements by using linked lists.
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Which of the following statements about open addressing is false?a)Ope...
Open addressing is a technique used for resolving collisions in a hash table. In open addressing, when a collision occurs (i.e., when two keys hash to the same index), the algorithm looks for the next available slot in the table to store the key-value pair.
Statement D states that open addressing can handle more elements than separate chaining. However, this statement is false, as open addressing has a limitation on the number of elements it can handle, whereas separate chaining does not have such a limitation.
Open addressing vs Separate chaining
To understand why statement D is false, it is important to compare open addressing with separate chaining.
- Open addressing:
- In open addressing, all keys are stored in the hashmap itself. This means that the size of the hashmap needs to be determined in advance, and it cannot be dynamically resized.
- When a collision occurs, open addressing uses a probing sequence to find the next available slot in the table. This probing sequence can be linear, quadratic, or double hashing.
- If the table becomes full and there are no more available slots for storing new elements, it becomes impossible to insert additional elements. This is known as hash table overflow.
- Open addressing can lead to clustering when many collisions occur. Clustering refers to the phenomenon where consecutive slots in the table become occupied, leading to longer probe sequences.
- Separate chaining:
- In separate chaining, each slot in the hashmap is a linked list that stores all the key-value pairs hashing to that index.
- Separate chaining does not require all keys to be stored in the hashmap itself. The hashmap can dynamically resize and accommodate more elements as needed.
- When a collision occurs, the key-value pair is added to the linked list at the corresponding index.
- Separate chaining does not suffer from clustering, as the linked lists can grow independently without affecting the performance of other slots.
Conclusion:
Statement D is false because open addressing cannot handle more elements than separate chaining. Open addressing has a limitation on the number of elements it can handle, as it requires the size of the hashmap to be determined in advance. In contrast, separate chaining can dynamically resize and accommodate more elements as needed, making it more flexible in handling a larger number of elements.