A hash function is any algorithm that maps data of a variable length to data of a fixed length. … See more

Hash functions are primarily used to generate fixed-length output data that acts as a shortened reference to the original data. This is useful when the original data is too cumber… See more

Hash functions are also used to accelerate table lookup or data comparison tasks such as finding items in a database, detecting duplicated or similar records in a large file, finding simil… See more

A hash function should be deterministic: when it is invoked twice on pieces of data that should be considered equal (e.g., two strings containing exactly the same characters)… See more

Hash functions are typically not invertible, meaning that it is not possible to reconstruct the input datum x from its hash value h(x) alone. In many applications, it is common th… See more

Hash functions are related to (and often confused with) checksums, check digits, fingerprints, randomization functions, error-correcting codes, and cryptographic. Although th… See more