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.