What are some practical use cases for hash maps?

What are some practical use cases for hash maps?

Hash maps are great for scenarios like caching, counting frequencies, and implementing associative arrays.

Can you give me an example of how hash maps are used in caching?

Sure! In caching, hash maps store key-value pairs where the key is the data identifier and the value is the cached data.

What about counting frequencies? How does that work?

In counting frequencies, you can use a hash map to map each unique item to its count, making it easy to tally occurrences.

Are there any performance benefits to using hash maps?

Yes, hash maps offer average O(1) time complexity for lookups, insertions, and deletions, making them very efficient.