The cost distribution of clustering in random probing
Béla Bollobás, Andrei Broder, István Simon · Journal of the ACM · 1990
A new approach to the analysis of random probing hashing algorithms is presented. The probability-generating function in closed form for the asymptotic cost of insertion via random probing with secondary clustering is derived. For higher-order clustering, it is shown that all the moments of the probability distribution of the insertion cost exist and are asymptotically equal to the corresponding moments of the cost distribution under uniform hashing. The method in this paper also leads to simple derivations for the expected cost of insertion for random probing with secondary and higher-order clustering.