Data Structures and Algorithms in Java A Project-Based Approach

A hash, in culinary terms, is a dish made of mixed foods – often including corned beef and onions – chopped into tiny pieces. In the early twentieth century, it became a shorthand for something of dubious origin, probably unwise to consume. In computer science, a hash function is an operation that rearranges, mixes, and combines data to produce a single fixed-size output. Unlike their culinary namesake, hash functions are wonderfully useful. A hash value is like a “fingerprint” of the input used to calculate it. Hash functions have applications to security, distributed systems, and – as we’ll explore – data structures.