How do I calculate a good hash code for a list of strings?

Question

Background:

• I have a short list of strings.
• The number of strings is not always the same, but are nearly always of the order of a “handful”
• I

Answer 1

I hope this is unnecessary, but since you don't mention anything which sounds like you're only using the hashcodes for a first check and then later verifying that the strings are actually equal, I feel the need to warn you:

Hashcode equality != value equality

There will be lots of sets of strings which yield the identical hashcode, but won't always be equal.