[an error occurred while processing this directive]
hash bucket
![[prev]](../gif/left.gif)
![[up]](../gif/up.gif)
![[next]](../gif/right.gif)
hash bucket /n./ A notional receptacle, a set of which might
be used to apportion data items for sorting or lookup purposes.
When you look up a name in the phone book (for example), you
typically hash it by extracting its first letter; the hash buckets
are the alphabetically ordered letter sections. This term is used
as techspeak with respect to code that uses actual hash functions;
in jargon, it is used for human associative memory as well. Thus,
two things `in the same hash bucket' are more difficult to
discriminate, and may be confused. "If you hash English words
only by length, you get too many common grammar words in the first
couple of hash buckets." Compare hash collision.
Return to Cool Jargon of the Day