an array of linked listsas shown in figure figure the hashchain workshop applet each element of the array occupies one line of the displayand the linked lists extend from left to right initially there are cells in the array ( liststhis is more than fits on the screenyou can move the display up and down with the scrollbar to see the entire array the display shows up to six items per list you can create hash table with up to listsand use load factors up to higher load factors may cause the linked lists to exceed six items and run off the right edge of the screenmaking it impossible to see all the items (this may happen very occasionally even at the load factor experiment with the hashchain applet by inserting some new items with the ins button you'll see how the red arrow goes immediately to the correct list and inserts the item at the beginning of the list the lists in the hashchain applet are not sortedso insertion does not require searching through the list (the example program will demonstrate sorted lists try to find specified items using the find button during find operationif there are several items on the listthe red arrow must step through the items looking for the correct one for successful searchhalf the items in the list must be examined on the averageas we discussed in "linked lists for an unsuccessful search all the items must be examined load factors the load factor (the ratio of the number of items in hash table to its sizeis typically different in separate chaining than in open addressing in separate chaining it' normal to put or more items into an -cell arraythus the load factor can be or greater there' no problem with thissome locations will simply contain two or more items in their lists of courseif there are many items on the listsaccess time is reduced because access to specified item requires searching through an average of half the items on the list finding the initial cell takes fast ( timebut searching through list takes time proportional to the number of items on the listo(mtime thus we don' want the lists to become too full load factor of as shown in the workshop appletis common with this load factorroughly one third of the cells will be emptyone third will hold one itemand one third will hold two or more items in open addressingperformance degrades badly as the load factor increases above one half or two thirds in separate chaining the load factor can rise above without hurting performance very much this makes separate chaining more robust mechanism