Introduction to Hashing

Hashing is a method to store data in an array so that storing, searching, inserting and deleting data is fast. For this every record needs an unique key.The basic idea is not to search for the correct position of a record with comparisons but to compute the position within the array. The function that returns the position is called the 'hash function' and the array is called a 'hash table'.

Main idea: Use an array of size m and the key k as address of the array.
A hash function h is used to map keys to [0::m-1].
Key technical issues :
- What is a good h? A good function avoids (but does not eliminate)collisions, and is quick to compute.
- How do we resolving collisions? Retrieval time is a function of collisions.
- What if we run out of space in the table?
- Can we rearranging keys upon an insertion?

A hash function is any well-defined procedure or mathematical function that converts a large, possibly variable-sized amount of data into a small datum, usually a single integer that may serve as an index to an array. The values returned by a hash function are called hash values, hash codes, hash sums, or simply hashes.A hash function may map two or more keys to the same hash value.Hash functions are related to (and often confused with) check sums,check digits, fingerprints, randomization functions, error correcting codes, and cryptographic hash functions. Although these concepts overlap to some extent, each has its own uses and requirements and is designed and optimized differently.

A hash table or hash map is a data structure that uses a hash function to efficiently map certain identifiers or keys (e.g., person names) to associated values (e.g., their telephone numbers).n general, a hashing function may map several different keys to the same index. Therefore, each slot of a hash table is associated with (implicitly or explicitly) a set of records, rather than a single record. For this reason, each slot of a hash table is often called a bucket, and hash values are also called bucket indices.