Associative array
Occasionally, I find I need to go back to basics and review the foundations on which I'm trying to build something. Currently, the work to build a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is predicated on using an Inference Engine to assess "theArray" of all content that can be accessed via the internet.
I sure hope this works, 'cause I'm falling further and further behind in my reading. :-)
Associative array
An associative array (also associative container, map, mapping, dictionary, finite map, and in query-processing an index or index file) is an abstract data type composed of a collection of unique keys and a collection of values, where each key is associated with one value (or set of values). The operation of finding the value associated with a key is called a lookup or indexing, and this is the most important operation supported by an associative array. The relationship between a key and its value is sometimes called a mapping or binding. For example, if the value associated with the key
Read more at en.wikipedia.org"bob"is7, we say that our array maps"bob"to7. Associative arrays are very closely related to the mathematical concept of a function with a finite domain. As a consequence, a common and important use of associative arrays is in memoization.
