From: Gavin Kistner <gavin@...>
Date: 2005-05-11T22:13:06+09:00
Subject: Re: String Hashing Algorithms

On May 10, 2005, at 5:58 PM, Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:
>> How can I figure out which hash it's using?
>
> We are using the last one, unless specifically defined.

Thanks. FWIW, though I know fine-tuning the performance of Ruby is  
not a high-priority, that last algorithm uses multiplication, while  
some of the other hashes I posted do not. I don't know how often  
String.hash is used, or how much of a difference a change of  
implementation would make (in speed) or how the algorithm being used  
fares compared to something like SDBM in real-world tests...but if it  
did compare favorably, was much faster, and String.hash was used in  
tons of places in the code, it might be a nice little speed boost.