As a programmer, you have been tasked with creating a program that needs to keep track of the names of all the staff members in an office along with their respective office room numbers. You need to choose a data structure that will allow you to store these pairs and look up any staff member's room number efficiently. Which data structure should you use for this purpose?
An associative array (also known as a map, dictionary, or hash table) is best suited for this kind of task where you have a key-value pair, where the key is the staff member's name and the value is their office room number. This allows for quick lookups of room numbers associated with staff names. Using a standard array would not be efficient, as it does not associate room numbers with names directly. A variable is too limited as it typically holds a single value or data point. A string cannot inherently represent the key-value relationship and would require additional mechanisms to pair room numbers with staff names.
Ask Bash
Bash is our AI bot, trained to help you pass your exam. AI Generated Content may display inaccurate information, always double-check anything important.
What is an associative array and how does it work?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
What are some advantages of using associative arrays?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
What are the limitations of standard arrays compared to associative arrays?