NAME

Bloom::Filter - Sample Perl Bloom filter implementation

DESCRIPTION

A Bloom filter is a probabilistic algorithm for doing existence tests in less memory than a full list of keys would require. The tradeoff to using Bloom filters is a certain configurable risk of false positives. This module implements a simple Bloom filter with configurable capacity and false positive rate. Bloom filters were first described in a 1970 paper by Burton Bloom, see <http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=362692&dl=ACM&coll=portal>.

SYNOPSIS

        use Bloom::Filter
        my $bf = Bloom::Filter->new( capacity => 10, error_rate => .001 );
        $bf->add( @keys );
        while ( <> ) {
                chomp;
                print "Found $_\n" if $bf->check( $_ );
        }

CONSTRUCTORS

new %PARAMS: Create a brand new instance. Allowable params are "error_rate", "capacity".
init: Calculates the best number of hash functions and optimum filter length, creates some random salts, and generates a blank bit vector. Called automatically by constructor.

ACCESSORS

capacity: Returns the total capacity of the Bloom filter
error_rate: Returns the configured maximum error rate
length: Returns the length of the Bloom filter in bits
key_count: Returns the number of items currently stored in the filter
on_bits: Returns the number of 'on' bits in the filter
salts: Returns the list of salts used to create the hash functions

PUBLIC METHODS

add @KEYS: Adds the list of keys to the filter. Will fail, return "undef" and complain if the number of keys in the filter exceeds the configured capacity.
check @KEYS: Checks the provided key list against the Bloom filter, and returns a list of equivalent length, with true or false values depending on whether there was a match.

INTERNAL METHODS

_calculate_shortest_filter_length CAPACITY ERR_RATE: Given a desired error rate and maximum capacity, returns the optimum combination of vector length (in bits) and number of hash functions to use in building the filter, where "optimum" means shortest vector length.
_get_cells KEY: Given a key, hashes it using the list of salts and returns an array of cell indexes corresponding to the key.

AUTHOR

Originally written by Maciej Ceglowski <maciej@ceglowski.com>. Currently maintained by Grzegorz Rożniecki <xaerxess@gmail.com>.

CONTRIBUTORS

Dmitriy Ryaboy <dmitriy.ryaboy@ask.com> (big speedup in February 2007, thanks!)

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software, distributed under version 2 of the GNU Public License (GPL).