What is the best 32bit hash function for short strings (tag names)?

Question

What is the best 32bit hash function for relatively short strings?

Strings are tag names that consist of English letters, numbers, spaces and some additional charact

Answer 1

Use MaPrime2c hash function:

static const unsigned char sTable[256] =
{
  0xa3,0xd7,0x09,0x83,0xf8,0x48,0xf6,0xf4,0xb3,0x21,0x15,0x78,0x99,0xb1,0xaf,0xf9,
  0xe7,0x2d,0x4d,0x8a,0xce,0x4c,0xca,0x2e,0x52,0x95,0xd9,0x1e,0x4e,0x38,0x44,0x28,
  0x0a,0xdf,0x02,0xa0,0x17,0xf1,0x60,0x68,0x12,0xb7,0x7a,0xc3,0xe9,0xfa,0x3d,0x53,
  0x96,0x84,0x6b,0xba,0xf2,0x63,0x9a,0x19,0x7c,0xae,0xe5,0xf5,0xf7,0x16,0x6a,0xa2,
  0x39,0xb6,0x7b,0x0f,0xc1,0x93,0x81,0x1b,0xee,0xb4,0x1a,0xea,0xd0,0x91,0x2f,0xb8,
  0x55,0xb9,0xda,0x85,0x3f,0x41,0xbf,0xe0,0x5a,0x58,0x80,0x5f,0x66,0x0b,0xd8,0x90,
  0x35,0xd5,0xc0,0xa7,0x33,0x06,0x65,0x69,0x45,0x00,0x94,0x56,0x6d,0x98,0x9b,0x76,
  0x97,0xfc,0xb2,0xc2,0xb0,0xfe,0xdb,0x20,0xe1,0xeb,0xd6,0xe4,0xdd,0x47,0x4a,0x1d,
  0x42,0xed,0x9e,0x6e,0x49,0x3c,0xcd,0x43,0x27,0xd2,0x07,0xd4,0xde,0xc7,0x67,0x18,
  0x89,0xcb,0x30,0x1f,0x8d,0xc6,0x8f,0xaa,0xc8,0x74,0xdc,0xc9,0x5d,0x5c,0x31,0xa4,
  0x70,0x88,0x61,0x2c,0x9f,0x0d,0x2b,0x87,0x50,0x82,0x54,0x64,0x26,0x7d,0x03,0x40,
  0x34,0x4b,0x1c,0x73,0xd1,0xc4,0xfd,0x3b,0xcc,0xfb,0x7f,0xab,0xe6,0x3e,0x5b,0xa5,
  0xad,0x04,0x23,0x9c,0x14,0x51,0x22,0xf0,0x29,0x79,0x71,0x7e,0xff,0x8c,0x0e,0xe2,
  0x0c,0xef,0xbc,0x72,0x75,0x6f,0x37,0xa1,0xec,0xd3,0x8e,0x62,0x8b,0x86,0x10,0xe8,
  0x08,0x77,0x11,0xbe,0x92,0x4f,0x24,0xc5,0x32,0x36,0x9d,0xcf,0xf3,0xa6,0xbb,0xac,
  0x5e,0x6c,0xa9,0x13,0x57,0x25,0xb5,0xe3,0xbd,0xa8,0x3a,0x01,0x05,0x59,0x2a,0x46
};


#define PRIME_MULT 1717


unsigned int
maPrime2cHash (unsigned char *str, unsigned int len)
{
  unsigned int hash = len, i;


  for (i = 0; i != len; i++, str++)
    {

      hash ^= sTable[( *str + i) & 255];
      hash = hash * PRIME_MULT;
    }

  return hash;
}

and look at www.amsoftware.narod.ru/algo2.html for MaFastPrime, MaRushPrime, etc tests.

Answer 2

I'm sorry for the very late reply on this. Earlier this year I composed a page titled Hashing Short Strings which might be helpful in this discussion. In summary, I found that CRC-32 and FNV-1a are superior for hashing short strings. They are efficient and produced widely distributed and collision free hashes in my tests. I was surprised to find that MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-3 produced small numbers of collisions when the output was folded down to 32-bits.

Answer 3

You might check out murmurhash2. It is fast, also for small strings, and has a good mixing final step so it is even good mixed for very small strings.

Answer 4

If it's rare that users add new tags, then you can use a perfect hash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_hash_function) that's recomputed each time a new tag is added. Of course, without knowing the problem you are really trying to solve, it's guesswork to figure out what you might do.

Answer 5

If performance isn't important, simply take a secure hash such as MD5 or SHA1, and truncate its output to 32 bits. This will give you a distribution of hash codes that's indistinguishable from random.

Answer 6

If your program needs communicate with other system, it is better to use a algorithm which is well known. The quick & dirty way is using first Several characters of md5 hash. You don't need spend hours or days to invent wheels in your project.

The disadvantage is get much much high chance to collisions. However, if your hash is for a time-stamped session, or short life circule task. There is no problem to use that.