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What does "bloom filter" mean in programming?
bloom filter is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
A space-efficient probabilistic data structure that tests whether an element is a member of a set. It can return false positives (saying an item is present when it is not) but never false negatives. Used in databases, caches, and spam filters to avoid expensive lookups.
Example
"Chrome uses a bloom filter to quickly check if a URL might be malicious before doing a full lookup."
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