Semiconductor & Computer Engineering
The /hmake command can be used to create a new hash table by a specific handle name.
A hash table is stored entirely in memory and thus it is the programmer's responsibility to save the data to a file if necessary via the /hsave command (and load it back later via the /hload command).
It's generally best to have the number of buckets be a prime number, but mIRC gives the user a large variety of choices. Instead of forcing the number of buckets to be prime, mIRC only forces the number to be odd. If [num_buckets] is an even number, mIRC will add one to the number. The default parameter for number of buckets is 100, with allowed values from 1 to 10000. Since even numbers are incremented to make them odd, the actual range is 1 to 10001 - with the default 100 incremented to 101, which is a prime number.
A hash table name is limited to 256 significant characters - any additional characters are simply ignored. In mIRC, a hash table is a much faster alternative to ini and normal text files.
Note: For most practical purposes, it's best to keep the ratio of <item count>:<maximum capacity> at 78% to maintain a good time-space tradeoff (i.e. 0.78 load factor). That means if you are planning on storing 78 items in the hash table, you should create a hash table with the size of 100 buckets. (A table of 1000 buckets is good to store up to about 780 items to maintain a maximum performance). The general equation to calculate optimal number of buckets is:
- [#_of_buckets] = [#_of_keys_that_will_be_used] / 0.78
Linked List
Because the hash table uses chaining to resolve collisions and due to the fact mIRC does not rehash or grows the array, using a hash table with 1 bucket, the hmake command can be used to create a linked list. New items are added to the start of the chain (i.e. $hget(<table_name>, 1) will always be last item added). Additionally, changing the value or removing an item does not alter the overall order of the list.
Synopsis
/hmake [-s] <table_name> [num_buckets]
Switches
- -s - displays a successful creation, or reports the table already exists
Parameters
- <table_name> - The name of the table you wish to make.
- [num_buckets] - The number of buckets to use as the table's capacity (If no number is specified, the default is 100)
Example
A basic usage for a hash table.
; call the setup once ; /abbr_setup ; ; //echo -a $abbr(lol) ; alias abbr_setup { ;create the table hmake abbr 1000 ; populate the table hadd abbr lol laughing out load hadd abbr omg oh my gosh hadd abbr lmao laughing my a?? off hadd abbr brb be right back ; ... } ; get the abbreviation alias abbr return $hget(abbr, $1)
Because a hash table of 1 buck is the same as a linked list, we can easily implement an almost-native stack data structure.
;/stack_example ; Output: ; poped: DDD ; poped: CCC ; poped: BBB ; poped: AAA alias stack_example { ; create a linked-list hmake stack 1 ; push items push stack AAA push stack BBB push stack CCC push stack DDD ; pop everything while ($pop(stack)) { echo -a poped: $v1 } ; delete linked-list hfree stack } alias push { ; keep a counter so we keep a unique key each time if (!$hget($1,0).item) hadd $1 counter 1 else hadd $1 counter $calc($hget($1, counter).data + 1) ; make it the first item hadd $1 key. $+ $hget($1, counter).data $2 } alias pop { if ($hget($1, 1).item != counter && $hget($1, 1).data) { ; delete the item hdel $1 $hget($1, 1).item ; return value return $v1 } }
//hfree -sw test | hmake -s test 1 | var %i 1 | while (%i isnum 1-50) { hadd test item $+ $base(%i,10,10,3) data | inc %i } | var %n 1 | while ($hget(test,%n).item) { echo -a $ord(%n) itemname is $v1 | inc %n } * Demonstrates how table items are accessed by $hget(table,N) in reverse order of creation if table created with 1 bucket. Changing the hmake command to use a larger number of buckets causes the items to be associated with N in a non-sequential pattern. //hfree -sw test | hmake -s test | var %i 9999 , %ticks $ticks | while (%i) { var %test $+ %i data %i | dec %i } | echo 4 -a done $calc($ticks - %ticks) ticks //hfree -sw test | hmake -s test | var %i 9999 , %ticks $ticks | while (%i) { hadd test %i data %i | dec %i } | echo 4 -a done $calc($ticks - %ticks) ticks * Demonstrates that it can be 10x faster to create a hashtable containing 9999 items than to create 9999 local %variables. //hfree -sw test | hmake -s test 2 | var %i 1 , %a | while (%i isnum 1-999) { hadd test item $+ $base(%i,10,10,3) data | inc %i } | var %n 1 | while ($hget(test,%n).item) { var %a $sha1(%a $v1) | inc %n } | echo -a hash of item sequence %a * Demonstrates that the number of buckets is always an odd number. An even number of buckets and even+1 arrange the items in the same sequence. * If needing items to always be in a predictable sequence, you can't count on using /hsave and /hload to preserve that order. By using 1 bucket, this example creates Item $+ N as the Nth item: //hfree -sw test | hmake -s test 1 | var %i 20 | while (%i) { hadd test item $+ %i data | dec %i } | var %N 1 | while ($hget(test,%N).item) { echo 4 -a $ord(%N) item is $hget(test,%N).item | inc %N } * This command saves the 20 items to disk, with the 1st pair of rows being the item named Item1 and the last pair of rows being the item named Item20: //hsave -s test test.dat | run notepad test.dat * When you /hload this diskfile into memory, the items are loaded into the Nth item in reverse order, where the 1st item now contains the item named Item20 instead of Item1: //hfree -w test2 | hload -sm1 test2 test.dat | echo -a the 1st item is $hget(test2,1).item * If you save this new hashtable to disk again, you'll find the line-pairs are saved to disk in the opposite order than in test.dat, which will cause loading them into a hash table to finally be the original seqence of the 1st table: //hsave -s test2 test2.dat | run notepad test2.dat
Compatibility
Added: mIRC v5.8
Added on: 05 Sep 2000
Note: Unless otherwise stated, this was the date of original functionality.
Further enhancements may have been made in later versions.