It seems to me he is using the same variable to represent two different quantities: m- the size of the hash table m- the size of each element in the hash table

It seems to me he is using the same variable to represent two different quantities: m- the size of the hash table m- the size of each element in the hash table The 2nd m should be a different variable, and it is constant with respect to the first m, which is the one we care about.