HashMap

Where vectors store values by an integer index, HashMaps store values by key. It is a hash map implemented with quadratic probing and SIMD lookup. By default, HashMap uses a hashing algorithm selected to provide resistance against HashDoS attacks.

The default hashing algorithm is currently SipHash 1-3, though this is subject to change at any point in the future. While its performance is very competitive for medium sized keys, other hashing algorithms will outperform it for small keys such as integers as well as large keys such as long strings, though those algorithms will typically not protect against attacks such as HashDoS.

The hash table implementation is a Rust port of Google’s SwissTable. The original C++ version of SwissTable can be found here, and this CppCon talk gives an overview of how the algorithm works.

Basic Operations

  1. 🌟🌟

// FILL in the blanks and FIX the errors
use std::collections::HashMap;
fn main() {
    let mut scores = HashMap::new();
    scores.insert("Sunface", 98);
    scores.insert("Daniel", 95);
    scores.insert("Ashley", 69.0);
    scores.insert("Katie", "58");

    // Get returns an Option<&V>
    let score = scores.get("Sunface");
    assert_eq!(score, Some(98));

    if scores.contains_key("Daniel") {
        // Indexing returns a value V
        let score = scores["Daniel"];
        assert_eq!(score, __);
        scores.remove("Daniel");
    }

    assert_eq!(scores.len(), __);

    for (name, score) in scores {
        println!("The score of {} is {}", name, score);
    }
}
  1. 🌟🌟

use std::collections::HashMap;
fn main() {
    let teams = [
        ("Chinese Team", 100),
        ("American Team", 10),
        ("France Team", 50),
    ];

    let mut teams_map1 = HashMap::new();
    for team in &teams {
        teams_map1.insert(team.0, team.1);
    }

    // IMPLEMENT team_map2 in two ways
    // Tips: one of the approaches is to use `collect` method
    let teams_map2...

    assert_eq!(teams_map1, teams_map2);

    println!("Success!");
}
  1. 🌟🌟

// FILL in the blanks
use std::collections::HashMap;
fn main() {
    // Type inference lets us omit an explicit type signature (which
    // would be `HashMap<&str, u8>` in this example).
    let mut player_stats = HashMap::new();

    // Insert a key only if it doesn't already exist
    player_stats.entry("health").or_insert(100);

    assert_eq!(player_stats["health"], __);

    // Insert a key using a function that provides a new value only if it
    // doesn't already exist
    player_stats.entry("health").or_insert_with(random_stat_buff);
    assert_eq!(player_stats["health"], __);

    // Ensures a value is in the entry by inserting the default if empty, and returns
    // a mutable reference to the value in the entry.
    let health = player_stats.entry("health").or_insert(50);
    assert_eq!(health, __);
    *health -= 50;
    assert_eq!(*health, __);

    println!("Success!");
}

fn random_stat_buff() -> u8 {
    // Could actually return some random value here - let's just return
    // some fixed value for now
    42
}

Requirements of HashMap key

Any type that implements the Eq and Hash traits can be a key in HashMap. This includes:

  • bool (though not very useful since there is only two possible keys)
  • int, uint, and all variations thereof
  • String and &str (tips: you can have a HashMap keyed by String and call .get() with an &str)

Note that f32 and f64 do not implement Hash, likely because floating-point precision errors would make using them as hashmap keys horribly error-prone.

All collection classes implement Eq and Hash if their contained type also respectively implements Eq and Hash. For example, Vec<T> will implement Hash if Timplements Hash.

  1. 🌟🌟

// FIX the errors
// Tips: `derive` is usually a good way to implement some common used traits
use std::collections::HashMap;

struct Viking {
    name: String,
    country: String,
}

impl Viking {
    /// Creates a new Viking.
    fn new(name: &str, country: &str) -> Viking {
        Viking {
            name: name.to_string(),
            country: country.to_string(),
        }
    }
}

fn main() {
    // Use a HashMap to store the vikings' health points.
    let vikings = HashMap::from([
        (Viking::new("Einar", "Norway"), 25),
        (Viking::new("Olaf", "Denmark"), 24),
        (Viking::new("Harald", "Iceland"), 12),
    ]);

    // Use derived implementation to print the status of the vikings.
    for (viking, health) in &vikings {
        println!("{:?} has {} hp", viking, health);
    }
}

Capacity

Like vectors, HashMaps are growable, but HashMaps can also shrink themselves when they have excess space. You can create a HashMap with a certain starting capacity using HashMap::with_capacity(uint), or use HashMap::new() to get a HashMap with a default initial capacity (recommended).

Example


use std::collections::HashMap;
fn main() {
    let mut map: HashMap<i32, i32> = HashMap::with_capacity(100);
    map.insert(1, 2);
    map.insert(3, 4);
    // Indeed ,the capacity of HashMap is not 100, so we can't compare the equality here.
    assert!(map.capacity() >= 100);

    // Shrinks the capacity of the map with a lower limit. It will drop
    // down no lower than the supplied limit while maintaining the internal rules
    // and possibly leaving some space in accordance with the resize policy.

    map.shrink_to(50);
    assert!(map.capacity() >= 50);

    // Shrinks the capacity of the map as much as possible. It will drop
    // down as much as possible while maintaining the internal rules
    // and possibly leaving some space in accordance with the resize policy.
    map.shrink_to_fit();
    assert!(map.capacity() >= 2);
    println!("Success!");
}

Ownership

For types that implement the Copy trait, like i32 , the values are copied into HashMap. For owned values like String, the values will be moved and HashMap will be the owner of those values.

  1. 🌟🌟
// FIX the errors with least changes
// DON'T remove any code line
use std::collections::HashMap;
fn main() {
  let v1 = 10;
  let mut m1 = HashMap::new();
  m1.insert(v1, v1);
  println!("v1 is still usable after inserting to hashmap : {}", v1);

  let v2 = "hello".to_string();
  let mut m2 = HashMap::new();
  // Ownership moved here
  m2.insert(v2, v1);
    
  assert_eq!(v2, "hello");

  println!("Success!");
}

Third-party Hash libs

If the performance of SipHash 1-3 doesn't meet your requirements, you can find replacements in crates.io or github.com.

The usage of third-party hash looks like this:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use std::hash::BuildHasherDefault;
use std::collections::HashMap;
// Introduce a third party hash function
use twox_hash::XxHash64;


let mut hash: HashMap<_, _, BuildHasherDefault<XxHash64>> = Default::default();
hash.insert(42, "the answer");
assert_eq!(hash.get(&42), Some(&"the answer"));
}