NIST

bucket

(definition)

Definition: An area of storage where items with a common property are stored. Typically tree data structures and sort algorithms use many buckets, one for each group of items. Usually buckets are kept on disk.

Generalization (I am a kind of ...)
bag.

Aggregate parent (I am a part of or used in ...)
radix sort, bucket sort, elastic-bucket trie, hash heap, extendible hashing.

Note: A bucket is used when a number of items need to be kept together, but the order among them is not important. Conceptually it is a bag (rather than a set).

Author: PEB


Go to the Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures home page.

If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul E. Black.

Entry modified Thu Jan 8 11:12:42 2004.
HTML page formatted Wed Oct 26 09:47:17 2005.

Cite this as:
Paul E. Black, "bucket", from Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures, Paul E. Black, ed., NIST.
http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/bucket.html

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