if the keys in dictionary come from total orderwe can store ' entries in an array list by nondecreasing order of the keys (see figure we specify that is an array listrather than node listfor the ordering of the keys in the array list allows for faster searching than would be possible had beensayimplemented with linked list admittedlya hash table has good expected running time for searching but its worst-case time for searching is no better than linked listand in some applicationssuch as in real-time processingwe need to guarantee worstcase searching bound the fast algorithm for searching in an ordered array listwhich we discuss in this subsectionhas good worst-case guarantee on its running time so it might be preferred over hash table in certain applications we refer to this ordered array list implementation of dictionary as an ordered search table