A Bloom filter, conceived by Burton Howard Bloom in 1970, is a space-efficient probabilistic data structure that is used to test whether an element is a member of a set. False positive retrieval results are possible, but false negatives are not; i.e. a query returns either "inside set (may be wrong)" or "definitely not in set". Elements can be added to the set, but not removed (though this can be addressed with a counting filter). The more elements that are added to the set, the larger the probability of false positives.
Read more about Bloom Filter: Algorithm Description, Space and Time Advantages, Probability of False Positives, Interesting Properties, Examples, Alternatives
Famous quotes containing the word bloom:
“Nor blame I Death, because he bare
The use of virtue out of earth;
I know transplanted human worth
Will bloom to profit, otherwhere.
For this alone on Death I wreak
The wrath that garners in my heart:
He put our lives so far apart
We cannot hear each other speak.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)