Alternative Data Structures in Ruby

Alternative Data
Structures in Ruby
Tyler McMullen
Friday, February 19, 2010

Why?

Why?
• Speed
• Memory
• Clarity

What’s wrong with my favorite
data structure, X?

Nothing. (Maybe.)

• Bloom Filter
• BK-tree
• Splay Tree
• Trie
Bloom Filters
• Tests for existence in a set

• Probabilistic
• Minimal memory use

100 million strings in a Set
Traditional Set: Minimum 10gb


Bloom Filter (0.00001): 280mb



0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

“to be or not to be”
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

add: “to be or not to be”
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

add: “that is the question”
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

query: “whether ‘tis nobler”
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
NO MATCH

query: “to be or not to be”
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
MATCH

query: “in the mind to suffer”
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
FALSE MATCH

File Server

Request
File Server
Y exists? N
200 404
Request
Bloom Filter
File Server
Y exists? N
200 404
Bloom Filter
• Test for existence in set

• Tiny Memory Footprint
• Excellent Speed

BK-tree

BK-tree
• find items within a distance of a target

• reduces search space
• works inside a metric space

Triangle Inequality
| d(x, y) - d(x, z) | ≤ d(y, z)

Triangle Inequality
| d(x, y) - d(x, z) | ≤ d(y, z)

Triangle Inequality
| d(x, y) - d(x, z) | ≤ d(y, z)
y
4
z 1

Triangle Inequality
| d(x, y) - d(x, z) | ≤ d(y, z)
? y
4
z 1

Triangle Inequality
| 4 - 1 | ≤ d(y, z)
? y
4
z 1

Triangle Inequality
3 ≤ d(y, z)
≥3 y
4
z 1

BK-tree
taser
paste
shave
light
pastor
pasta

BK-tree
taser
paste
shave
light
pastor
pasta

BK-tree
root
paste
1 2 3 4 5
pasta pastor taser shave light

BK-tree
root
pastu paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
root
1
pastu paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
root
1
pastu paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
root
1
pastu paste
2
1
pasta pastor

BK-tree
root
1
pastu paste
2
1
pasta pastor

BK-tree
root
paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
root
pastu paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
root
pastu paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
root
pastu paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
root
pastu paste
1 2 3 4 5

BK-tree
• Most often used for spelling correctors

• Work in any metric space
• Reduce the search space

Splay Tree

Tangent:
Access Patterns

Access Patterns
Usually assumed to be random or even.

Access Patterns
Rarely the case.

Splay Tree
• Self-balancing binary tree

• Brings most accessed items toward root
• The more uneven the access pattern, the
better

Splay Tree
7
4 11
2 6 9 13
1 3 5 4 8 10 12 14

Splay Tree
7
4 11
2 6 9 13
1 3 5 4 8 10 12 14

Splay Tree
7
4 9
2 6 8 11
10 13
1 3 5 4
12 14

Splay Tree
9
8 11
7 10 13
4
12 14
2 6
1 3 5 4

Splay Tree
• Made for very uneven access patterns

• Caches, Garbage collectors, etc...

Trie

Trie
• O(1) on lookup, add, removal

• Ordered traversals
• Prefix matching
• Excellent memory usage (depending on
implementation)

Trie

Trie
add: “thin”
T

Trie
add: “trap”
T
H R
I A
N P

Trie
add: “bar”
B T
A H R
R I A
N P

Trie
add: “burp”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “trap”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “trap”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “trap”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “trap”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “trap”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P
Success!
Trie
query: “bumpkin”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “bupkis”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “bupkis”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P

Trie
query: “bupkis”
B T
U A H R
R R I A
P N P
Fail!
Trie
Example: Autocompleter

Trie
class Autocompleter
def initialize(words)
@trie = Trie.new
words.each { |word| @trie.add(word) }
end
def query(word)
return @trie.children(word)
end
end

Trie
class Autocompleter
def initialize(words)
@trie = Trie.new
words.each { |word| @trie.add(word) }
end
def call(env)
request = Rack::Request.new(env)
return [200,
{ ‘content-‐type’ => ‘application/json’ },
@trie.children(word).to_json]
end
end

Conclusion: Data structures are cool.

Questions?

Alternative Data Structures in Ruby

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Alternative Data Structures in Ruby

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Alternative Data

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

• Tests for existence in a set

Friday, February 19, 2010

Traditional Set: Minimum 10gb

Friday, February 19, 2010

Traditional Set: Minimum 10gb

Friday, February 19, 2010

Traditional Set: Minimum 10gb

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

• Test for existence in set

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

• find items within a distance of a target

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

• Most often used for spelling correctors

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Usually assumed to be random or even.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Rarely the case.

Friday, February 19, 2010

• Self-balancing binary tree

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

• Made for very uneven access patterns

Friday, February 19, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010