Algorithms For Dummies

DISCOVERING UNEXPECTED  

USES OF HASHES

Apart from the algorithms detailed in this book, other important algorithms are based 

on hashes. For instance, the Locality-sensitive Hashing (LSH) algorithm relies on a large 

number of hash functions to stitch apparently separated information together. If you 

wonder how marketing companies and intelligence services put different chunks of 

information together based on names and addresses that aren’t identical (for example, 

guessing that “Los Angels,” “Los Angles,” and “Los Angleles” all refer to Los Angeles) the 

answer is LSH. LSH chunks the information to check into parts and digests it using many 

hash functions, resulting in the production of a special hash result, which is an address 

for a bucket used to hold similar words. LSH is quite complex in its implementation, but 

check out this material from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): 

http://

www.mit.edu/~andoni/LSH/

.

---

152

 

   

  PART 2