Efficient Extensional Binary Tries

Andrew W Appel (1) , Xavier Leroy (2, 3)

1 Princeton University
2 CAMBIUM - Langages de programmation : systèmes de types, concurrence, preuve de programme
3 Collège de France - Chaire Sciences du logiciel

Lookup tables (finite maps) are a ubiquitous data structure. In pure functional languages they are best represented using trees instead of hash tables. In pure functional languages within constructive logic, without a primitive integer type, they are well represented using binary tries instead of search trees. In this work, we introduce canonical binary tries, an improved binary-trie data structure that enjoys a natural extensionality property, quite useful in proofs, and supports sparseness more efficiently. We provide full proofs of correctness in Coq. We provide microbenchmark measurements of canonical binary tries versus several other data structures for finite maps, in a variety of application contexts; as well as measurement of canonical versus original tries in two big, real systems. The application context of data structures contained in theorem statements imposes unusual requirements for which canonical tries are particularly well suited.

Mots clés: Verified data structures; Program proof; VST; CompCert; Coq

Domaines: Langage de programmation [cs.PL]; Logique en informatique [cs.LO]

Andrew W Appel, Xavier Leroy. Efficient Extensional Binary Tries. Journal of Automated Reasoning, 2023, 67, pp.Article number 8. ⟨10.1007/s10817-022-09655-x⟩. ⟨hal-03372247v4⟩