Hashing Questions Medium
Hashing is a technique used in computer science and cryptography to convert data of any size into a fixed-size value, typically a string of characters. The fixed-size value is called a hash value or hash code. The process of generating this hash value is known as hashing.
Hashing works by taking the input data and applying a hash function to it. A hash function is a mathematical algorithm that takes an input and produces a unique output of fixed length. The output is typically a sequence of characters or numbers.
The hash function processes the input data in a way that it generates a hash value that is unique to that specific input. This means that even a small change in the input data will result in a completely different hash value. The hash value is essentially a digital fingerprint of the input data.
Hashing has several important properties. Firstly, it is a one-way function, meaning that it is computationally infeasible to reverse-engineer the original input data from the hash value. Secondly, it is deterministic, meaning that the same input will always produce the same hash value. Lastly, it has the property of collision resistance, which means that it is highly unlikely for two different inputs to produce the same hash value.
Hashing is widely used in various applications. In computer science, it is used for data retrieval and storage in hash tables, where data is organized and accessed using hash values as keys. It is also used in password storage, where instead of storing the actual passwords, only their hash values are stored for security purposes.
In summary, hashing is a process of converting data into a fixed-size value using a hash function. It provides unique hash values for different inputs, is computationally infeasible to reverse, and is widely used in various applications for data organization and security purposes.