Hash consing

Hash consing is like having a toy box with lots of different toys. When you want to play with a toy car, you search through the toy box until you find one. But if you have lots of toy cars in the toy box, you might waste a lot of time searching through them all, right? Hash consing helps you organize your toy box so that you can find toys more easily.

Hash consing is a way of storing data in your computer so that if you have lots of the same thing, you don't waste space by storing it over and over again. Instead, you store one copy of the thing, and then use a clever system called a hash function to remember where it is.

For example, imagine you have lots of the number 3. Instead of storing 3 over and over again, you just store it once in your toy box. Then, when you need the number 3 again, you don't search through the toy box. Instead, you use the hash function to remember where the number 3 is, and you just copy it over to whatever you need it for.

Hash consing is really useful for things like computer programs, where you might have lots of identical data that takes up lots of memory. With hash consing, you can store that data more efficiently and make your program run faster!