06/12/2024, 19:31 06: HashMap & HashSet and how do they internally work? What is a hashing function?

ashing function? | 800+ Big Data & Java Interview FAQs

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Home › Java › 300+ Core Java Q&As › Core Java - Collection API › 06: HashMap & HashSet and how do they

internally work? What is a hashing function?

06: HashMap & HashSet and 300+ Java Interview

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HashMap & HashSet are not only one of the frequently used data
structures, but also one of the popular interview topics.

Q1. How does a HashMap store data? 300+ Big Data Interview
A1. As key/value pairs. You can store and retrieve values with the Q&As - Quick Prep FAQs
keys.
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Q2. What is the HashMap lookup time in Big O notation? FAQs 📌 

A2. On average it is O(1) if the hashCode() method spreads out the 250+ Scala Interview FAQs 
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Q3 How does a HashMap internally store data?

A3. A backing array for the buckets and a linked list (until Java 8)
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hashCode() returns 1, 45, etc

1) When you put an object into a map with a key and a value,
hashCode() method is implicitly invoked, and hash code value say
123 is returned. Two different keys can return the same hash value.
A good hashing algorithm spreads out the numbers. In the above
example, let’s assume that (“John”,01/01/1956) key and (“Peter”,
01/01/1995) key return the same hash value of 123.

Java equals vs hashCode

2) Now when a hashCode value of say 123 is returned and the initial
HashMap capacity is say 10, how does it know which index of the
backing array to store it in? This is where the HashMap internally
invokes the hash(int ) & indexFor(int h, int length) methods. This is
known as the hashing function. This function in a very simple
explanation is like
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06/12/2024, 19:31 06: HashMap & HashSet and how do they internally work? What is a hashing function? | 800+ Big Data & Java Interview FAQs

1
2 hashCode() % capacity
3
4 123 % 10 = 3
5 456 % 10 = 6
6

This means the “hashcode = 123” gets stored in index 3 in the

backing array. So you get numbers between 0 and 9 for the capacity
of 10. Once the HashMap reaches its 75% of the capacity indicated
by the default hash factor of 0.75, the backing array’s capacity is
doubled and the rehashing takes place to reallocate the buckets for
the new capacity of 20.

1
2 hashCode() % capacity
3
4 123 % 20 = 3
5 456 % 20 = 16
6

Now the above modulus operator approach of rehashing has a flaw.

What if the hashCode is a negative number? You don’t want a
negative index. Hence, an improved hashing formula would be to
shift out the sign bit and then calculate the remainder with the
modulus (i.e. %) operator.

1
2 (123 & 0x7FFFFFFF) % 20 = 3
3 (456 & 0x7FFFFFFF) % 20 = 16
4

This ensures that you get a positive index value. If you look at the
Java 8 HashMap source code, its implementation uses

a). Protect against poorer hashes by only extracting the important

lower bits.

1
2 static int hash(int h) {
3 // This function ensures that hashCodes that differ only
4 // constant multiples at each bit position have a bounded
5 // number of collisions (approximately 8 at default load
6 h ^= (h >>> 20) ^ (h >>> 12);
7 return h ^ (h >>> 7) ^ (h >>> 4);
8 }
9

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06/12/2024, 19:31 06: HashMap & HashSet and how do they internally work? What is a hashing function? | 800+ Big Data & Java Interview FAQs

b). Determine the index based on the hashCode and capacity.

1
2 static int indexFor(int h, int length) {
3 return h & (length-1);
4 }
5

Actual name value pairs are stored as a key/value pair LinkedList

As shown in the diagram, the key/value pairs are stored as linked

list. It is important to understand that two different keys can result in
the same hashcode say 123, and get stored in the same bucket. For
example, “John, 01/01/1956” & “Peter, 01/01/1995” in the above
example. So, how do you retrieve just “John, 01/01/1956”? This is
where you key class’s equals() method gets invoked. It loops
through the items in the LinkedList bucket “123” to retrieve the key
“John, 01/01/1956” by using the equals() method to find a match.
This is why it is important to implement the hashCode() & equals()
method in your key class. If you are using an existing wrapper class
like Integer or the String as a key, it is already implemented. If you
write your own key class like “MyKey” with name and DOB as the
attributes as in “John, 01/01/1956”, you are responsible for properly
implementing these methods.

Q5. Why is it a good practice to appropriately set the initial capacity

of a HashMap?
A5. To minimize the occurrences of rehashing.

Q6. How does a HashSet internally store data?

A6. A HashSet internally uses a HashMap. It stores the element as
both key and value.

Q7. What is the effect of implementing a poor hashcode() for an

object?
A7. The invocation of hashCode() method should return different
values for different objects. If it returns same values for different
objects then this results in more key/value pairs getting stored
against the same bucket. This adversely impacts performance of
HashMaps & HashSets.

Relevant topics
1) 5 Java Object class methods interview questions & answers.

2) HashMap from scratch Java example

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3) Stack from scratch Java example

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