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Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python

You're reading from   Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python Write complex and powerful code using the latest features of Python 3.7

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Product type Paperback
Published in Oct 2018
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781788995573
Length 398 pages
Edition 2nd Edition
Languages
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Authors (2):
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Benjamin Baka Benjamin Baka
Author Profile Icon Benjamin Baka
Benjamin Baka
Dr. Basant Agarwal Dr. Basant Agarwal
Author Profile Icon Dr. Basant Agarwal
Dr. Basant Agarwal
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Toc

Table of Contents (16) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Python Objects, Types, and Expressions 2. Python Data Types and Structures FREE CHAPTER 3. Principles of Algorithm Design 4. Lists and Pointer Structures 5. Stacks and Queues 6. Trees 7. Hashing and Symbol Tables 8. Graphs and Other Algorithms 9. Searching 10. Sorting 11. Selection Algorithms 12. String Algorithms and Techniques 13. Design Techniques and Strategies 14. Implementations, Applications, and Tools 15. Other Books You May Enjoy

Symbol tables

Symbol tables are used by compilers and interpreters to keep track of the symbols that have been declared and to keep information about them. Symbol tables are often built using hash tables since it is important to efficiently retrieve a symbol from the table.

Let's look at an example. Suppose we have the following Python code:

    name = "Joe" 
age = 27

Here, we have two symbols, name and age. They belong to a namespace, which could be __main__, but it could also be the name of a module if you placed it there. Each symbol has a value; for example, the name symbol has the value, Joe, and the age symbol has the value, 27. A symbol table allows the compiler or the interpreter to look up these values. So, the name and age symbols become keys in the hash table. All of the other information associated with them become the value of the symbol table entry...

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