> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://blog.sunilgudivada.dev/notebook/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://blog.sunilgudivada.dev/notebook/data-structures-and-algorithms/topics/hash-table-vs-binary-search-trees.md).

# Hash Table vs Binary Search Trees

## Hash Tables

* Simpler to code.
* No effective alternative for unordered keys.
* Faster for simple keys (a few arithmetic ops versus log N compares).
* Better system support in Java for strings (e.g., cached hash code).

## Binary Search Trees

* Stronger performance guarantee.
* Support for ordered ST operations.
* Easier to implement compareTo() correctly than equals() and hashCode().

## Java Implementations

**Red-black BSTs**: java.util.TreeMap, java.util.TreeSet.

**Hash Tables:** java.util.HashMap, java.util.IdentityHashMap.