generic Map question

[alexandersr1]

I need help with a generic Map that supports the insert and lookup operations. The implementation will store a hash table of pairs (key, definition). You will lookup a definition by providing a key. This is what I have so far. I don't know what is missing.

template <typename HashedObj, typename Object>
class Pair
{
HashedObj key;
Object def;
// Appropriate Constructors, etc.

};

template <typename HashedObj, typename Object>
class Dictionary
{

public:
Dictionary( );

void insert( const HashedObj & key, const Object & definition );
const Object & lookup( const HashedObj & key ) const;
bool isEmpty( ) const;
void makeEmpty( );

private:
HashTable<Pair<HashedObj,Object> > items;

};

[firedraco]

EDIT: Actually...why exactly would you want to "insert" something into a map...it's stored by a key so it doesn't matter where it is...if it is just adding something to it, you can do that with a normal map too...

Actually, you can do both of these with a normal map...

[seymore15074]

What is the problem?

[helios]

What's the difference between Dictionary and HashTable? A dictionary stores a relation between a unique key of type T and a value of type T2. A hashmap is a special case of a dictionary in which the keys are hashed before any indexing operation, and the hash is used as the key, instead. Where does Dictionary keep the keys?
Since a hashmap is a special case of a dictionary, it'd make more sense that HashMap had an instance of Dictionary, not viceversa.

Yeah, I agree with firedraco. insert() should be called add(), since you can't tell it where to insert.

[jsmith]

Although the sequence STL containers such as set, map, multiset, and multimap all use "insert" instead of "add".

I'd use insert because it conforms to STL.