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unordered/doc/hash_equality.qbk
2008-07-06 21:29:47 +00:00

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[/ Copyright 2006-2008 Daniel James.
/ Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
/ file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) ]
[section:hash_equality Equality Predicates and Hash Functions]
While the associative containers use an ordering relation to specify how the
elements are stored, the unordered associative containers use an equality
predicate and a hash function. For example, [classref boost::unordered_map]
is declared as:
template <
class Key, class Mapped,
class Hash = ``[classref boost::hash]``<Key>,
class Pred = std::equal_to<Key>,
class Alloc = std::allocator<Key> >
class ``[classref boost::unordered_map unordered_map]``;
The hash function comes first as you might want to change the hash function
but not the equality predicate. For example, if you wanted to use the
[@http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/fnv/ FNV-1 hash] you could write:
[import src_code/dictionary.cpp]
[case_sensitive_dictionary_fnv]
There is an [@../../libs/unordered/examples/fnv1.hpp implementation
of FNV-1] in the examples directory.
If you wish to use a different equality function,
you will also need to use a matching hash function. For
example, to implement a case insensitive dictionary you need to define a
case insensitive equality predicate and hash function:
[case_insensitive_functions]
Which you can then use in a case insensitive dictionary:
[case_insensitive_dictionary]
This is a simplified version of the example at
[@../../libs/unordered/examples/case_insensitive.hpp /libs/unordered/examples/case_insensitive.hpp]
which supports other locales and string types.
[h2 Custom Types]
Similarly, a custom hash function can be used for custom types:
[import src_code/point1.cpp]
[point_example1]
Since the default hash function is [link hash Boost.Hash],
we can [link hash.custom extend it to support the type]
so that the hash function doesn't need to be explicitly given:
[import src_code/point2.cpp]
[point_example2]
See the [link hash.custom Boost.Hash documentation] for more detail on how to
do this. Remember that it relies on extensions to the draft standard - so it
won't work on other implementations of the unordered associative containers.
[table Methods for accessing the hash and equality functions.
[[Method] [Description]]
[
[`hasher hash_function() const`]
[Returns the container's hash function.]
]
[
[`key_equal key_eq() const`]
[Returns the container's key equality function.]
]
]
[endsect]