hsearch(3C) COMPATIBILITY FUNCTIONS hsearch(3C)
NAME
hsearch, hcreate, hdestroy - manage hash search tables
SYNOPSIS
#include <search.h>
ENTRY *hsearch (ENTRY item, ACTION action);
int hcreate (sizet nel);
void hdestroy (void);
DESCRIPTION
hsearch is a hash-table search routine generalized from
Knuth (6.4) Algorithm D. It returns a pointer into a hash
table indicating the location at which an entry can be
found. The comparison function used by hsearch is strcmp
[see string(3C)]. item is a structure of type ENTRY
(defined in the search.h header file) containing two
pointers: item.key points to the comparison key, and
item.data points to any other data to be associated with
that key. (Pointers to types other than void should be cast
to pointer-to-void.) action is a member of an enumeration
type ACTION (defined in search.h) indicating the disposition
of the entry if it cannot be found in the table. ENTER
indicates that the item should be inserted in the table at
an appropriate point. Given a duplicate of an existing
item, the new item is not entered and hsearch returns a
pointer to the existing item. FIND indicates that no entry
should be made. Unsuccessful resolution is indicated by the
return of a null pointer.
hcreate allocates sufficient space for the table, and must
be called before hsearch is used. nel is an estimate of the
maximum number of entries that the table will contain. This
number may be adjusted upward by the algorithm in order to
obtain certain mathematically favorable circumstances.
hdestroy destroys the search table, and may be followed by
another call to hcreate.
EXAMPLE
The following example will read in strings followed by two
numbers and store them in a hash table, discarding dupli-
cates. It will then read in strings and find the matching
entry in the hash table and print it out.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <search.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
Last change: C Programming Language Utilities 1
hsearch(3C) COMPATIBILITY FUNCTIONS hsearch(3C)
struct info { /* this is the info stored in table */
int age, room; /* other than the key */
};
#define NUMEMPL 5000 /* # of elements in search table */
main( )
{
/* space to store strings */
Last change: C Programming Language Utilities 2
hsearch(3C) COMPATIBILITY FUNCTIONS hsearch(3C)
char stringspace[NUMEMPL*20];
/* space to store employee info */
struct info infospace[NUMEMPL];
/* next avail space in stringspace */
char *strptr = stringspace;
/* next avail space in infospace */
struct info *infoptr = infospace;
ENTRY item, *founditem;
/* name to look for in table */
char nametofind[30];
int i = 0;
/* create table */
(void) hcreate(NUMEMPL);
while (scanf("%s%d%d", strptr, &infoptr->age,
&infoptr->room) != EOF && i++ < NUMEMPL) {
/* put info in structure, and structure in item */
item.key = strptr;
item.data = (void *)infoptr;
strptr += strlen(strptr) + 1;
infoptr++;
/* put item into table */
(void) hsearch(item, ENTER);
}
/* access table */
item.key = nametofind;
while (scanf("%s", item.key) != EOF) {
if ((founditem = hsearch(item, FIND)) != NULL) {
/* if item is in the table */
(void)printf("found %s, age = %d, room = %d\n",
founditem->key,
((struct info *)founditem->data)->age,
((struct info *)founditem->data)->room);
} else {
(void)printf("no such employee %s\n",
nametofind)
}
}
return 0;
}
Last change: C Programming Language Utilities 3
hsearch(3C) COMPATIBILITY FUNCTIONS hsearch(3C)
SEE ALSO
bsearch(3C), lsearch(3C), malloc(3C), malloc(3X),
string(3C), tsearch(3C).
DIAGNOSTICS
hsearch returns a null pointer if either the action is FIND
and the item could not be found or the action is ENTER and
the table is full.
hcreate returns zero if it cannot allocate sufficient space
for the table.
NOTES
hsearch and hcreate use malloc(3C) to allocate space.
Only one hash search table may be active at any given time.
Last change: C Programming Language Utilities 4