Perfect hashing functions.

Abstract

This thesis will introduce the reader to the idea of using a hashing function for storage and retrieval of information. The history of how hashing functions originated is presented. Some different types of hashing functions are discussed. In particular this thesis presents a perfect hashing function. A perfect hashing function (phf) is an injection, F, from a set I of N objects into the set consisting of the first R non-negative integers where R l N. Perfect hashing functions are useful for the compact storage and fast retrieval of frequently used objects such as reserved words in a programming language.