If you can not tune a HashMap it will be worse than an ordinary array. It will take more space and more processing time.
This will of course depend on the size and usage - it *may* be more efficient with hashmaps. Do you really think we can generalize being it worse all the time? Keeping an array "ordered" to be able to do binary searches can statistically cost a lot of "copying" at insertion time. Binary searches may involves a lot more string comparison. In a binary search comparing the "string hash" value is of no use to know if the value is "greater" or "lower" (to decide for the next search direction). In hashmaps, the lookup in the "chain" after the hash jump can, most of the time, "skip" a string entry without even looking at the characters by comparing the 32bit integer hashes. About Arrays (this is more than slightly OT) :-) I still believe Arrays are implemented as associative arrays. But this is just pure belief since I have no proof and it could easily change from one version of the VM to the other. var a:Array; a[0] = 'abc'; a[123456789] = 'high index value'; a["this is text"] = 'non-integer index'; trace(a.length); /// should output 123456790 Sidenote: I often use this "feature" of Arrays to make an "ordered associative array" in one single object. This may look a bit like a hack - but it is perfectly valid. I can both traverse the keys in a fixed custom order and lookup one item with its key directly. Also you can retrieve quickly how many items there are using "length". For example, when inserting a new entry, I do something like: a[key] = value; a[a.length] = key; I would really like to have insights into the flash VM implementation so I could do better choices regarding maps and arrays. regards, B. (--snip------rest of previous mail removed to keep it shorter-------snip---) _______________________________________________ Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
