Hashing
![](/images/c/c6/Computation.png)
Computational thinking, problem-solving and programming[1]
A hash function is any function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size to fixed-size values. The values returned by a hash function are called hash values, hash codes, digests, or simply hashes. The values are used to index a fixed-size table called a hash table. Use of a hash function to index a hash table is called hashing or scatter storage addressing.[2]
Hashing is the transformation of a string of characters into a usually shorter fixed-length value or key that represents the original string. Hashing is used to index and retrieve items in a database because it is faster to find the item using the shorter hashed key than to find it using the original value. It is also used in many encryption algorithms.[3]
Simple Code sample[edit]
# this file should be used as part of your process to understand hashing.
# please change values so you can see how hashing works!
myString = "Hello there"
print("Before Hash: ", myString)
myHashedString = hash(myString)
print("After Hash: ", myHashedString)
Videos[edit]