The invention generally provides for a network element and methods in the network element for allowing a matching entry in a forwarding memory to be found in a single search of the memory, for determining when an entry should be placed in the memory, and for determining when an entry should be removed from the memory, in order to make more efficient use of the fixed space available in the memory. The invention is particularly useful in making more efficient use of a Content Addressable Memory (CAM) for storing flow entries, and configuring the CAM to index an associated memory that stores forwarding and quality of service information for each CAM entry.