Question

Using the data structure concept of hashing demonstrate using pseudocode how you can implement an operation to recommend location to retrieve product in a warehouse during issuing.

Answer 1

Assume that the warehouse is categorised into n locations numbered from 0 to n-1. There are x number of products numbered from 0 to x-1. Without the loss of generality, we assume x >> n. Each of these x products is kept in one of these n locations in the warehouse.

To retrieve the product, we need to find the location where it is stored. We use hashing for this.

The hash function hash(i) gives the hash value for any product i.

Any product i is kept at a location numbered hash(i)%n (because multiple products can be kept at one location)

Whenever we want to retrieve any product, we can go to this location.

Further, if we categorise each location into several parts, this concept can be applied again.