Abstract: The disclosure reduces a memory footprint of a hash table that employs chaining as a collision avoidance solution. The methods and systems disclosed herein enable the use of chaining collision handling while reducing a memory footprint by storing parts of a tag and a link list pointer associated with a linked list that contain useful information, without storing parts of the tag and pointer that do not contain useful information. The linked list pointer and a hash key are packed together without reducing either size, and without using additional memory overhead.

Abstract: The disclosure reduces a memory footprint of a hash table that employs chaining as a collision avoidance solution. The methods and systems disclosed herein enable the use of chaining collision handling while reducing a memory footprint by storing parts of a tag and a link list pointer associated with a linked list that contain useful information, without storing parts of the tag and pointer that do not contain useful information. The linked list pointer and a hash key are packed together without reducing either size, and without using additional memory overhead.