Is a Python dictionary an example of a hash table?

Question

One of the basic data structures in Python is the dictionary, which allows one to record "keys" for looking up "values" of any type. Is this implemented internally as a hash table? If not, what is it?

Answer 1

There must be more to a Python dictionary than a table lookup on hash(). By brute experimentation I found this hash collision:

>>> hash(1.1)
2040142438
>>> hash(4504.1)
2040142438

Yet it doesn't break the dictionary:

>>> d = { 1.1: 'a', 4504.1: 'b' }
>>> d[1.1]
'a'
>>> d[4504.1]
'b'

Sanity check:

>>> for k,v in d.items(): print(hash(k))
2040142438
2040142438

Possibly there's another lookup level beyond hash() that avoids collisions between dictionary keys. Or maybe dict() uses a different hash.

(By the way, this in Python 2.7.10. Same story in Python 3.4.3 and 3.5.0 with a collision at hash(1.1) == hash(214748749.8).)

(I haven't found any collisions in Python 3.9.6. Since the hashes are bigger -- hash(1.1) == 230584300921369601 -- I estimate it would take my desktop a thousand years to find one. So I'll get back to you on this.)

Answer 2

Yes. Internally it is implemented as open hashing based on a primitive polynomial over Z/2 (source).

Answer 3

To expand upon nosklo's explanation:

a = {}
b = ['some', 'list']
a[b] = 'some' # this won't work
a[tuple(b)] = 'some' # this will, same as a['some', 'list']