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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- --
-- GNAT COMPILER COMPONENTS --
-- --
-- G N A T . P E R F E C T _ H A S H --
-- --
-- S p e c --
-- --
-- Copyright (C) 2002-2003 Ada Core Technologies, Inc. --
-- --
-- GNAT is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under --
-- terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Soft- --
-- ware Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later ver- --
-- sion. GNAT is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITH- --
-- OUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY --
-- or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License --
-- for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General --
-- Public License distributed with GNAT; see file COPYING. If not, write --
-- to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, --
-- MA 02111-1307, USA. --
-- --
-- As a special exception, if other files instantiate generics from this --
-- unit, or you link this unit with other files to produce an executable, --
-- this unit does not by itself cause the resulting executable to be --
-- covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not --
-- however invalidate any other reasons why the executable file might be --
-- covered by the GNU Public License. --
-- --
-- GNAT was originally developed by the GNAT team at New York University. --
-- Extensive contributions were provided by Ada Core Technologies Inc. --
-- --
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package GNAT.Perfect_Hash is
pragma Pure (Perfect_Hash);
-- The packages in this hierarchy implement perfect hash
-- functions. To understand what a perfect hash function is, we
-- define several notions. These definitions are inspired from the
-- following paper:
--
-- Zbigniew J. Czech, George Havas, and Bohdan S. Majewski ``An
-- Optimal Algorithm for Generating Minimal Perfect Hash Functions'',
-- Information Processing Letters, 43(1992) pp.257-264, Oct.1992
--
-- Let W be a set of m words. A hash function h is a function that
-- maps the set of words W into some given interval of integers
-- [0, k-1], where k is an integer, usually k >= m. h (w) where w
-- is a word computes an address or an integer from I for the
-- storage or the retrieval of that item. The storage area used to
-- store items is known as a hash table. Words for which the same
-- address is computed are called synonyms. Due to the existence
-- of synonyms a situation called collision may arise in which two
-- items w1 and w2 have the same address. Several schemes for
-- resolving known. A perfect hash function is an injection from
-- the word set W to the integer interval I with k >= m. If k = m,
-- then h is a minimal perfect hash function. A hash function is
-- order preserving if it puts entries into the hash table in a
-- prespecified order.
--
-- A minimal perfect hash function is defined by two properties:
-- * Since no collisions occur each item can be retrieved from the
-- table in *one* probe. This represents the "perfect" property.
-- * The hash table size corresponds to the exact size of W and
-- *no larger*. This represents the "minimal" property.
end GNAT.Perfect_Hash;