High Speed Hashing for Integers and Strings

TL;DR

This paper reviews the most efficient and practical hash functions for integers and strings, highlighting their speed, simplicity, and the theoretical complexity behind their analysis, aiming to bridge theory and practice.

Contribution

It consolidates recent advances in hash functions into an accessible resource for both theoreticians and practitioners, emphasizing practical efficiency and implementation simplicity.

Findings

Modern hash functions are an order of magnitude faster than traditional ones.

They are simpler to implement, making them more practical for real-world use.

Some of the most effective hash functions originate from recent theory papers.

Abstract

These notes describe the most efficient hash functions currently known for hashing integers and strings. These modern hash functions are often an order of magnitude faster than those presented in standard text books. They are also simpler to implement, and hence a clear win in practice, but their analysis is harder. Some of the most practical hash functions have only appeared in theory papers, and some of them requires combining results from different theory papers. The goal here is to combine the information in lecture-style notes that can be used by theoreticians and practitioners alike, thus making these practical fruits of theory more widely accessible.