Hashtables are probably more directly useful than all the binary tree gymnastics. The K&R C Programming Language book has nearly the same example (although I r

Hashtables are probably more directly useful than all the binary tree gymnastics. The K&R C Programming Language book has nearly the same example (although I recall it using linked-lists for hash collisions and not probing). I would be mildly suspicious of anyone claiming to have a recent CS degree who wasn't familiar with the ideas.