AGroot@UNCAMULT.BITNET (Adriaan Degroot) (12/14/90)
Thanx to all who responded (even the person in the same building as
I am) who pointed out the following points:
a) gperf, available everywhere (but here) produces perfect hash
functions for a given set of keywords. Versions in a bunch
of languages. Free. etc. etc.
b) Perfect hashing, which I guess is what I asked for, rears its
ugly head in CACM every ten years, and remains unresolved.
As people have pointed out, it tends to be expensive & should
probably be avoided with a preference to faster, reasonably
minimal hash functions.
c) This particular question could be handled by other methods, such
as tries, binary searches, some simple brainwork.
Some people have offered to send source for generating hashers,
some mailed excellent technical explanations of what I was trying
to do (i.e. they explained to me what my question meant - thanx
again to you) but by far the most people said "Use gperf & be happy"
which is what I guess I will do, sometime in the future.
** If you're the type who follows-up to summaries, mail to
** AGroot@UNCAMULT.BITNET, please.
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