Dispatch table

Imagine you are playing with your toys and each toy has a different color. You also have a chart on which you have written the names of the colors and the toy you associate with them. This chart is called a dispatch table.

For example, if you want to play with the blue toy, you look at the chart and find the name "blue" and the toy related to it. Then you go and pick up the blue toy to play with.

In computer programming, a dispatch table is like your toy chart. It's a way to organize a list of instructions or functions that need to be executed depending on different conditions or inputs.

For instance, let's say we have a program that needs to perform different calculations based on the type of math operation given. We create a dispatch table with the different math operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) and the corresponding functions that perform those operations.

When the program receives a math operation input, it looks up the corresponding function in the dispatch table and executes it. This makes it easier to manage and modify the program since we only need to edit the dispatch table and not the actual code.

So just like your toy chart, a dispatch table helps you find what you need quickly and easily, without having to remember all the details every time you want to play or do something.