The QAsciiDict class is a template class that provides a dictionary based on char* keys.
.PP
QAsciiDict is implemented as a template class. Define a template instance QAsciiDict<X> to create a dictionary that operates on pointers to X (X*).
.PP
A dictionary is a collection of key-value pairs. The key is a char* used for insertion, removal and lookup. The value is a pointer. Dictionaries provide very fast insertion and lookup.
.PP
QAsciiDict cannot handle Unicode keys; use the QDict template instead, which uses QString keys. A QDict has the same performace as a QAsciiDict.
<< fields["surname"]->text() << endl; // Prints "Homer Simpson"
.br
.br
fields.remove( "forename" ); // Does not delete the line edit
.br
if ( ! fields["forename"] )
.br
cout << "forename is not in the dictionary" << endl;
.br
.fi
In this example we use a dictionary to keep track of the line edits we're using. We insert each line edit into the dictionary with a unique name and then access the line edits via the dictionary. See QPtrDict, QIntDict and QDict.
.PP
See QDict for full details, including the choice of dictionary size, and how deletions are handled.
.PP
See also QAsciiDictIterator, QDict, QIntDict, QPtrDict, Collection Classes, Collection Classes, and Non-GUI Classes.
Constructs a dictionary optimized for less than \fIsize\fR entries.
.PP
We recommend setting \fIsize\fR to a suitably large prime number (a bit larger than the expected number of entries). This makes the hash distribution better and will improve lookup performance.
.PP
When \fIcaseSensitive\fR is TRUE (the default) QAsciiDict treats" abc" and "Abc" as different keys; when it is FALSE "abc" and" Abc" are the same. Case-insensitive comparison only considers the 26 letters in US-ASCII.
.PP
If \fIcopyKeys\fR is TRUE (the default), the dictionary copies keys using strcpy(); if it is FALSE, the dictionary just copies the pointers.
Assigns \fIdict\fR to this dictionary and returns a reference to this dictionary.
.PP
This dictionary is first cleared and then each item in \fIdict\fR is inserted into this dictionary. Only the pointers are copied (shallow copy) unless newItem() has been reimplemented().
Removes the item associated with \fIkey\fR from the dictionary. Returns TRUE if successful, i.e. if the key existed in the dictionary; otherwise returns FALSE.
.PP
If there are two or more items with equal keys, then the most recently inserted item will be removed.
.PP
The removed item is deleted if auto-deletion is enabled.
.PP
All dictionary iterators that refer to the removed item will be set to point to the next item in the dictionary traversal order.
Sets the collection to auto-delete its contents if \fIenable\fR is TRUE and to never delete them if \fIenable\fR is FALSE.
.PP
If auto-deleting is turned on, all the items in a collection are deleted when the collection itself is deleted. This is convenient if the collection has the only pointer to the items.
.PP
The default setting is FALSE, for safety. If you turn it on, be careful about copying the collection - you might find yourself with two collections deleting the same items.
.PP
Note that the auto-delete setting may also affect other functions in subclasses. For example, a subclass that has a remove() function will remove the item from its data structure, and if auto-delete is enabled, will also delete the item.
.PP
See also autoDelete().
.PP
Examples:
.)l grapher/grapher.cpp, scribble/scribble.cpp, and table/bigtable/main.cpp.
.SH "uint QAsciiDict::size () const"
Returns the size of the internal hash array (as specified in the constructor).
