4973

Key-Value Associative Arrays

Key-Value Associative Arrays in Mathematica 10

Version 10 introduces fundamental new constructs called associations. They associate keys with values, allowing highly efficient lookup and updating, even with millions of elements. Associations provide generalizations of symbolically indexed lists, associative arrays, dictionaries, hashmaps, structs, and a variety of other powerful data structures.

  • Generic data structure for storing data in the form of key and value pairs.
  • Extremely fast lookup of the value, given the key.
  • Scalable to an arbitrary large number of elements.
  • Key-value associations can be added or deleted as needed.
  • Use any expression for key or value.
  • Create hierarchical data structures with easy element access.
  • Use as function objects or discrete functions.

Extract Data as Associative Arrays »
Use Any Expression as a Key or Value »
Make Hierarchical Associative Arrays »
Extract Mappings as Associative Arrays »