Open Addressing

The first collision resolution approach, open addressing, resolves collisions in the prime area  that is, the area that contains all of the home addresses. This technique is opposed to linked list resolution, in which the collisions are resolved by placing the data in a separate overflow area.

When a collision occurs, the prime area addresses are searched for an open or unoccupied element where the new data can be placed. We discuss four different methods: linear probe, quadratic probe, pseudorandom collision resolution, and key offset. The last two methods, pseudorandom and key offset, are collectively known as double hashing or rehashing methods