Unordered HashTable

Question

I need help with my HashTable as well..this is an unordered HashTable.
I want to change my Add method so that it takes an Object o rather than and int and a String. the problem is I'm having a problem figuring out how to do just that. my Add Method header is
void Add(int key,String name)
but I want it to be boolean Add(Object o)
but I want to call my add method like:
where x is the instance of HashTable (this is in the main method)
x.Add(5,"Hank Hill");
the other thing in my Add Method that I'm failing at grasping is creating a Data D that contains both the key and the name such that there's a D.key to compare keys with. I looked at the pseudo on wikipedia and realized after a great deal that there way is about 1000x better than mine so I'm going to try and adopt their method.
this is my current Add method and I don't like it:
void Add(int key,String name)//headache^2 but I think it works.
          int position=0;
          int alpha = key%this.size;
          if (array[alpha] == null) { array[alpha] = key+"\t"+name; }
          //if not empty then add quotient to key%size 55%11 = 0..quotient =5, so increment by 5%11 until null spot is found probe seq =0%11,5%11,10%11,15%11
          else
               for (int i=0;i<this.size;i++)
                    position = alpha + ((key/this.size)%this.size);
                    if (array[position] == null) { array[position] = key+"\t"+name; break; }
     }Thanks in advance to anyone wiling to take the time and help me out.
Message was edited by:
pubert>

Answer 1

You should follow Java naming conventions. Method names start with a lower-case letter.
Anyway...so this is a homework assignment where you're implementing a hash table, correct? And you have apparently implemented an add method that takes a hashcode, and a String, which apparently is the value you're storing. Correct?
Why are you storing the hashtable value in the array?
What do you mean by "Data D"? Is that some class that your teacher told you about? You do realize that these forums are international and have nothing to do with your school, right?
Anyway, you now want to make your hashtable take an Object, and not a specific String and not require the hashcode. Right?
So take the hashcode from the Object argument via the hashCode method (all Objects have that), and just store the Object in the array, don't store some weird combo of the hashcode and a String.
Does that help?