Associative array challenges, or examples?

Posted by Aerovistae on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Aerovistae
Published on 2013-11-12T08:12:05Z Indexed on 2013/11/12 10:20 UTC
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data-structures

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teaching

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challenge

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practice-problems

I understand well when and how to use an associative array, but I'm trying to teach a friend to program and I'm having some trouble with this particular concept.

I need a good set of problems whose solutions are best implemented through the use of maps/hashes/associative arrays/dictionaries. I googled all over and couldn't find any. I was hoping someone might know of some, or perhaps get a community wiki sort of answer.

That way I can say, here's our problem, and here's how we could effectively solve it through the use of an associative array...

It's one of those cases where when I'm programming and I run into a situation that calls for a dictionary, I recognize it, but I can't seem to make up any such situations to use for a demonstration.

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