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The hashmap API is a generic implementation of hash-based key-value mappings.

Data Structures

struct hashmap

The hash table structure. Members can be used as follows, but should not be modified directly:

The size member keeps track of the total number of entries (0 means the hashmap is empty).

tablesize is the allocated size of the hash table. A non-0 value indicates that the hashmap is initialized. It may also be useful for statistical purposes (i.e. size / tablesize is the current load factor).

cmpfn stores the comparison function specified in hashmap_init(). In advanced scenarios, it may be useful to change this, e.g. to switch between case-sensitive and case-insensitive lookup.

When disallow_rehash is set, automatic rehashes are prevented during inserts and deletes.

struct hashmap_entry

An opaque structure representing an entry in the hash table, which must be used as first member of user data structures. Ideally it should be followed by an int-sized member to prevent unused memory on 64-bit systems due to alignment.

The hash member is the entry’s hash code and the next member points to the next entry in case of collisions (i.e. if multiple entries map to the same bucket).

struct hashmap_iter

An iterator structure, to be used with hashmap_iter_* functions.

Types

int (*hashmap_cmp_fn)(const void *entry, const void *entry_or_key, const void *keydata)

User-supplied function to test two hashmap entries for equality. Shall return 0 if the entries are equal.

This function is always called with non-NULL entry / entry_or_key parameters that have the same hash code. When looking up an entry, the key and keydata parameters to hashmap_get and hashmap_remove are always passed as second and third argument, respectively. Otherwise, keydata is NULL.

Functions

unsigned int strhash(const char *buf)
unsigned int strihash(const char *buf)
unsigned int memhash(const void *buf, size_t len)
unsigned int memihash(const void *buf, size_t len)
unsigned int memihash_cont(unsigned int hash_seed, const void *buf, size_t len)

Ready-to-use hash functions for strings, using the FNV-1 algorithm (see http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/fnv).

strhash and strihash take 0-terminated strings, while memhash and memihash operate on arbitrary-length memory.

strihash and memihash are case insensitive versions.

memihash_cont is a variant of memihash that allows a computation to be continued with another chunk of data.

unsigned int sha1hash(const unsigned char *sha1)

Converts a cryptographic hash (e.g. SHA-1) into an int-sized hash code for use in hash tables. Cryptographic hashes are supposed to have uniform distribution, so in contrast to memhash(), this just copies the first sizeof(int) bytes without shuffling any bits. Note that the results will be different on big-endian and little-endian platforms, so they should not be stored or transferred over the net.

void hashmap_init(struct hashmap *map, hashmap_cmp_fn equals_function, size_t initial_size)

Initializes a hashmap structure.

map is the hashmap to initialize.

The equals_function can be specified to compare two entries for equality. If NULL, entries are considered equal if their hash codes are equal.

If the total number of entries is known in advance, the initial_size parameter may be used to preallocate a sufficiently large table and thus prevent expensive resizing. If 0, the table is dynamically resized.

void hashmap_free(struct hashmap *map, int free_entries)

Frees a hashmap structure and allocated memory.

map is the hashmap to free.

If free_entries is true, each hashmap_entry in the map is freed as well (using stdlib’s free()).

void hashmap_entry_init(void *entry, unsigned int hash)

Initializes a hashmap_entry structure.

entry points to the entry to initialize.

hash is the hash code of the entry.

The hashmap_entry structure does not hold references to external resources, and it is safe to just discard it once you are done with it (i.e. if your structure was allocated with xmalloc(), you can just free(3) it, and if it is on stack, you can just let it go out of scope).

void *hashmap_get(const struct hashmap *map, const void *key, const void *keydata)

Returns the hashmap entry for the specified key, or NULL if not found.

map is the hashmap structure.

key is a hashmap_entry structure (or user data structure that starts with hashmap_entry) that has at least been initialized with the proper hash code (via hashmap_entry_init).

If an entry with matching hash code is found, key and keydata are passed to hashmap_cmp_fn to decide whether the entry matches the key.

void *hashmap_get_from_hash(const struct hashmap *map, unsigned int hash, const void *keydata)

Returns the hashmap entry for the specified hash code and key data, or NULL if not found.

map is the hashmap structure.

hash is the hash code of the entry to look up.

If an entry with matching hash code is found, keydata is passed to hashmap_cmp_fn to decide whether the entry matches the key. The entry_or_key parameter points to a bogus hashmap_entry structure that should not be used in the comparison.

void *hashmap_get_next(const struct hashmap *map, const void *entry)

Returns the next equal hashmap entry, or NULL if not found. This can be used to iterate over duplicate entries (see hashmap_add).

map is the hashmap structure.

entry is the hashmap_entry to start the search from, obtained via a previous call to hashmap_get or hashmap_get_next.

void hashmap_add(struct hashmap *map, void *entry)

Adds a hashmap entry. This allows to add duplicate entries (i.e. separate values with the same key according to hashmap_cmp_fn).

map is the hashmap structure.

entry is the entry to add.

void *hashmap_put(struct hashmap *map, void *entry)

Adds or replaces a hashmap entry. If the hashmap contains duplicate entries equal to the specified entry, only one of them will be replaced.

map is the hashmap structure.

entry is the entry to add or replace.

Returns the replaced entry, or NULL if not found (i.e. the entry was added).

void *hashmap_remove(struct hashmap *map, const void *key, const void *keydata)

Removes a hashmap entry matching the specified key. If the hashmap contains duplicate entries equal to the specified key, only one of them will be removed.

map is the hashmap structure.

key is a hashmap_entry structure (or user data structure that starts with hashmap_entry) that has at least been initialized with the proper hash code (via hashmap_entry_init).

If an entry with matching hash code is found, key and keydata are passed to hashmap_cmp_fn to decide whether the entry matches the key.

Returns the removed entry, or NULL if not found.

void hashmap_disallow_rehash(struct hashmap *map, unsigned value)

Disallow/allow automatic rehashing of the hashmap during inserts and deletes.

This is useful if the caller knows that the hashmap will be accessed by multiple threads.

The caller is still responsible for any necessary locking; this simply prevents unexpected rehashing. The caller is also responsible for properly sizing the initial hashmap to ensure good performance.

A call to allow rehashing does not force a rehash; that might happen with the next insert or delete.

void hashmap_iter_init(struct hashmap *map, struct hashmap_iter *iter)
void *hashmap_iter_next(struct hashmap_iter *iter)
void *hashmap_iter_first(struct hashmap *map, struct hashmap_iter *iter)

Used to iterate over all entries of a hashmap. Note that it is not safe to add or remove entries to the hashmap while iterating.

hashmap_iter_init initializes a hashmap_iter structure.

hashmap_iter_next returns the next hashmap_entry, or NULL if there are no more entries.

hashmap_iter_first is a combination of both (i.e. initializes the iterator and returns the first entry, if any).

const char *strintern(const char *string)
const void *memintern(const void *data, size_t len)

Returns the unique, interned version of the specified string or data, similar to the String.intern API in Java and .NET, respectively. Interned strings remain valid for the entire lifetime of the process.

Can be used as [x]strdup() or xmemdupz replacement, except that interned strings / data must not be modified or freed.

Interned strings are best used for short strings with high probability of duplicates.

Uses a hashmap to store the pool of interned strings.

Usage example

Here’s a simple usage example that maps long keys to double values.

struct hashmap map;

struct long2double {
	struct hashmap_entry ent; /* must be the first member! */
	long key;
	double value;
};

static int long2double_cmp(const struct long2double *e1, const struct long2double *e2, const void *unused)
{
	return !(e1->key == e2->key);
}

void long2double_init(void)
{
	hashmap_init(&map, (hashmap_cmp_fn) long2double_cmp, 0);
}

void long2double_free(void)
{
	hashmap_free(&map, 1);
}

static struct long2double *find_entry(long key)
{
	struct long2double k;
	hashmap_entry_init(&k, memhash(&key, sizeof(long)));
	k.key = key;
	return hashmap_get(&map, &k, NULL);
}

double get_value(long key)
{
	struct long2double *e = find_entry(key);
	return e ? e->value : 0;
}

void set_value(long key, double value)
{
	struct long2double *e = find_entry(key);
	if (!e) {
		e = malloc(sizeof(struct long2double));
		hashmap_entry_init(e, memhash(&key, sizeof(long)));
		e->key = key;
		hashmap_add(&map, e);
	}
	e->value = value;
}

Using variable-sized keys

The hashmap_entry_get and hashmap_entry_remove functions expect an ordinary hashmap_entry structure as key to find the correct entry. If the key data is variable-sized (e.g. a FLEX_ARRAY string) or quite large, it is undesirable to create a full-fledged entry structure on the heap and copy all the key data into the structure.

In this case, the keydata parameter can be used to pass variable-sized key data directly to the comparison function, and the key parameter can be a stripped-down, fixed size entry structure allocated on the stack.

See test-hashmap.c for an example using arbitrary-length strings as keys.

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