Hash??? Not quite clear on what this is...

[Dan Salomon]

In article <9012031446.AA24102 at bisco.kodak.COM> bilbo at bisco.kodak.COM (Charles Tryon) writes:
>  ... My question
>  is, are there any recomendations out there for a good, fairly basic book on
>  hashing?  I don't need to know all the gory details and the latest hot-shot
>  methods, just the basics.

Almost any university text on data structures will have a section on hash
searching.  See for instance:

"Fundamentals of Data Structures" by Horowitz and Sahni  
"Data Structures Techniques" by Standish
"Data Structures" by Reingold & Hansen

The first is the most readable of the three, and the last is the most
complete.  Hashing can be used on almost any computerized search
problem, not just string searching problems, and usually performs very
well.  I have even used hashing to search for matching states in a
parsing automaton.  But it may take some imagination and skill to apply
it to your specific problem.
-- 

Dan Salomon -- salomon at ccu.UManitoba.CA
               Dept. of Computer Science / University of Manitoba
	       Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada  R3T 2N2 / (204) 275-6682