A Distribution-Sensitive Dictionary with Low Space Overhead

The time required for a sequence of operations on a data structure is usually measured in terms of the worst possible such sequence. This, however, is often an overestimate of the actual time required. Distribution-sensitive data structures attempt to take advantage of underlying patterns in a sequence of operations in order to reduce time complexity, since access patterns are non-random in many applications. Unfortunately, many of the distribution-sensitive structures in the literature require a great deal of space overhead in the form of pointers. We present a dictionary data structure that makes use of both randomization and existing space-efficient data structures to yield very low space overhead while maintaining distribution sensitivity in the expected sense.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: WADS
• Authors: Prosenjit Bose, John Howat, Pat Morin
• Keywords: Algorithms, Data Structures, Distribution-sensitive Data Structures, Space Overhead, WADS 2009