In computer science, a hash table or hash map is a data structure that uses a hash function to efficiently map certain identifiers or keys (e.g., person names) to associated values (e.g., their telephone numbers). The hash function is used to transform the key into the index (the hash) of an array element (the slot or bucket) where the corresponding value is to be sought. Ideally the hash function should map each possible key to a different slot index, but this ideal is rarely achievable in practice (unless the hash keys are fixed; i.e. new entries are never added to the table after creation). Most hash table designs assume that hash collisions pairs of different keys with the same hash values are normal occurrences and must be accommodated in some way.