Python Data Structures and Algorithms

Non-string keys

In most cases, it makes more sense to just use strings for the keys. However, if necessary, you could use any other Python type. If you create your own class that you want to use as a key, you will probably want to override the special __hash__() function for that class, so that you get reliable hash values.

Note that you would still have to calculate the modulo (%) of the hash value and the size of the hash table to get the slot. That calculation should happen in the hash table and not in the key class, since the table knows its own size (the key class should not know anything about the table that it belongs to).