haskell@gentoo.org
This package provides a couple of different implementations of mutable hash
tables in the ST monad, as well as a typeclass abstracting their common
operations, and a set of wrappers to use the hash tables in the IO monad.
/QUICK START/: documentation for the hash table operations is provided in the
"Data.HashTable.Class" module, and the IO wrappers (which most users will
probably prefer) are located in the "Data.HashTable.IO" module.
This package currently contains three hash table implementations:
1. "Data.HashTable.ST.Basic" contains a basic open-addressing hash table
using linear probing as the collision strategy. On a pure speed basis it
should currently be the fastest available Haskell hash table
implementation for lookups, although it has a higher memory overhead
than the other tables and can suffer from long delays when the table is
resized because all of the elements in the table need to be rehashed.
2. "Data.HashTable.ST.Cuckoo" contains an implementation of \"cuckoo
hashing\" as introduced by Pagh and Rodler in 2001 (see
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo_hashing>). Cuckoo hashing has
worst-case /O(1)/ lookups and can reach a high \"load factor\", in which
the table can perform acceptably well even when more than 90% full.
Randomized testing shows this implementation of cuckoo hashing to be
slightly faster on insert and slightly slower on lookup than
"Data.Hashtable.ST.Basic", while being more space efficient by about a
half-word per key-value mapping. Cuckoo hashing, like the basic hash
table implementation using linear probing, can suffer from long delays
when the table is resized.
3. "Data.HashTable.ST.Linear" contains a linear hash table (see
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_hashing>), which trades some insert
and lookup performance for higher space efficiency and much shorter
delays when expanding the table. In most cases, benchmarks show this
table to be currently slightly faster than @Data.HashTable@ from the
Haskell base library.
It is recommended to create a concrete type alias in your code when using this
package, i.e.:
> import qualified Data.HashTable.IO as H
>
> type HashTable k v = H.BasicHashTable k v
>
> foo :: IO (HashTable Int Int)
> foo = do
> ht <- H.new
> H.insert ht 1 1
> return ht
Firstly, this makes it easy to switch to a different hash table implementation,
and secondly, using a concrete type rather than leaving your functions abstract
in the HashTable class should allow GHC to optimize away the typeclass
dictionaries.
This package accepts a couple of different cabal flags:
* @unsafe-tricks@, default /ON/. If this flag is enabled, we use some
unsafe GHC-specific tricks to save indirections (namely @unsafeCoerce#@
and @reallyUnsafePtrEquality#@. These techniques rely on assumptions
about the behaviour of the GHC runtime system and, although they've been
tested and should be safe under normal conditions, are slightly
dangerous. Caveat emptor. In particular, these techniques are
incompatible with HPC code coverage reports.
* @sse41@, default /OFF/. If this flag is enabled, we use some SSE 4.1
instructions (see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSE4>, first available on
Intel Core 2 processors) to speed up cache-line searches for cuckoo
hashing.
* @bounds-checking@, default /OFF/. If this flag is enabled, array accesses
are bounds-checked.
* @debug@, default /OFF/. If turned on, we'll rudely spew debug output to
stdout.
* @portable@, default /OFF/. If this flag is enabled, we use only pure
Haskell code and try not to use unportable GHC extensions. Turning this
flag on forces @unsafe-tricks@ and @sse41@ /OFF/.
This package has been tested with GHC 7.0.3, on:
* a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard with an Intel Core i5 processor,
running GHC 7.0.3 in 64-bit mode.
* an Arch Linux desktop with an AMD Phenom II X4 940 quad-core processor.
* a MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor,
running GHC 6.12.3 in 32-bit mode.
Please send bug reports to
<https://github.com/gregorycollins/hashtables/issues>.
gregorycollins/hashtables