hash_map in stl

Hash_map is a Hashed Associative Container that associates objects of type Key with objects of type Data. Hash_map is a Pair Associative Container, meaning that its value type is pair<const Key, Data>. It is also a Unique Associative Container, meaning that no two elements have keys that compare equal using EqualKey.
Looking up an element in a hash_map by its key is efficient, so hash_map is useful for "dictionaries" where the order of elements is irrelevant. If it is important for the elements to be in a particular order, however, then map is more appropriate.

Example

struct eqstr
{
  bool operator()(const char* s1, const char* s2) const
  {
    return strcmp(s1, s2) == 0;
  }
};

int main()
{
  hash_map<const char*, int, hash<const char*>, eqstr> months;
  
  months["january"] = 31;
  months["february"] = 28;
  months["march"] = 31;
  months["april"] = 30;
  months["may"] = 31;
  months["june"] = 30;
  months["july"] = 31;
  months["august"] = 31;
  months["september"] = 30;
  months["october"] = 31;
  months["november"] = 30;
  months["december"] = 31;
  
  cout << "september -> " << months["september"] << endl;
  cout << "april     -> " << months["april"] << endl;
  cout << "june      -> " << months["june"] << endl;
  cout << "november  -> " << months["november"] << endl;
}

my experience is that it is important to use hash_map whenever necessary!