What is an associative container?
associative-array, c++, data-structures
Solution
An associative container is any container that is not necessarily indexed with sequential integers that start with the base for the language (0 in most of the C-based languages, 1 for some others). If the data structure in your paper meets that requirement, it is an associative container.
As a general rule, don't use Wikipedia as a source for an academic paper.
Problem
I am writing a paper about a certain new data structure. This structure holds `(key, value)` pairs and supports fast lookup by the `key`. Can I call it an associative container in my paper? Wikipedia contains the definition of associative containers only in the context of C++. Is the concept of associative container a C++ thing? The entry on Associative arrays seems better. It defines the associative array in terms of 4 operations: - the addition of pairs to the collection - the removal of pairs from the collection - the modification of the values of existing pairs - the lookup of the value associated with a particular key Unfortunately I cannot find very good references to this definition. Do you know of any relevant sources that I can cite?