defn inside hash table

Good afternoon. I'm studying the hash table program from K&R. I understand name is the content I want to find. But I don't know what is the role of defn in this program.

Code:

 
#include <stdio.h> 
#include <string.h> 

struct nlist { 
    
  struct nlist *next; /* próxima entrada na cadeia */ 
  char *name; /* nome definido */ 
  char *text;     /* texto substituído */

};     

#define HASHSIZE 101

static struct nlist *hashtab[HASHSIZE];

/* hash: create hash value for string s */

unsigned hash(char *s) 
{ 
   unsigned hashval; 
   
   for(hashval = 0; *s != '\0'; s++) 
     hashval = *s + 31 * hashval;
   return hashval % HASHSIZE;      
}

/* lookup: look for s in hashtab */     
struct nlist *lookup(char *s) 
{ 
  struct nlist *np;
  
  for(np = hashtab[hash(s)]; np != NULL; np = np->next)
    if(strcmp(s, np->name) == 0)
      return np; 
  return NULL;         
}     

struct nlist *lookup(char *); 

/* install: put(name, defn) in hashtab */ 

struct nlist *install(char *name, char *defn) 
{ 
   struct nlist *np; 
   unsigned hashval; 
   
   if( (np = lookup(name) ) == NULL) /* not found */ 
   { 
     np = (struct nlist *) malloc(sizeof(*np));  
     if(np == NULL || (np->name = strdup(name)) == NULL)
       return NULL;
     hashval = hash(name);
     np->next = hashtab[hashval];
     hashtab[hashval] = np;  
   }
     else                     
       free((void *) np->defn);
    if((np->defn = strdup(defn)) == NULL)       
      return NULL;
    return np;  
}

char *getword(char *w, int lim) 
{ 
      
}          

int main(void) 
{ 
        
  
   return 0;     
}

I think the question is about of terminology:

install(NAME, DEFN) : this will put the symbol with the name NAME into the table, and this name has a definition DEFN.

example for the K&R implementation is a compiler that has the "#define" ability:

#define A variable_a
#define PI 3.14159
#define FOO bar

NAME refers to the macro name and DEFN refers to the replacement text. In this example you might do the following calls:

Code:

if (install("A", "variable_a") == NULL) error();
if (install("PI", "3.14159") == NULL) error();
if (install("FOO", "bar") == NULL) error();

The function error() could be written to signal an error to the user (memory allocation error).

In other terminology, the NAME part is sometimes called the "key" and the DEFN part is called the "value". So the two together form a single "key-value pair".

You must have typed it wrong. There is no member with that name, but there is an argument with that name.

Originally Posted by c99tutorial

I think the question is about of terminology:

In other terminology, the NAME part is sometimes called the "key" and the DEFN part is called the "value". So the two together form a single "key-value pair".

Many Thanks. That was what I needed.