Ideally, a hashtable is O(1). The problem is if two keys are not equal, however they result in the same hash.

For example, imagine the strings "it was the best of times it was the worst of times" and "Green Eggs and Ham" both resulted in a hash value of 123.

When these values are inserted into hashtable, it would see that a value already exists for key 123. It would then compare the new value to the existing value, and see they are not equal. In this case, an array or linked list is created for that key. At this point, retrieving this value becomes O(n) as the hashtable needs to iterate through each key in that bucket to find the desired one.

Make sense?

Ideally, a hashtable is O(1). The problem is if two keys are not equal, however they result in the same hash.

For example, imagine the strings "it was the best of times it was the worst of times" and "Green Eggs and Ham" both resulted in a hash value of 123.

When the first string is inserted, it's put in bucket 123. When the second string is inserted, it would see that a value already exists for bucket 123. It would then compare the new value to the existing value, and see they are not equal. In this case, an array or linked list is created for that key. At this point, retrieving this value becomes O(n) as the hashtable needs to iterate through each value in that bucket to find the desired one.

For this reason, when using a hash table, it's important to use a key with a really good hash function that's both fast and doesn't often result in duplicate values for different objects.

Make sense?