Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!jareth.enet.dec.com!edp
From: edp@jareth.enet.dec.com (Eric Postpischil (Always mount a scratch monkey.))
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: Hashing help needed
Keywords: thickness, width, length, code
Message-ID: <13511@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Date: 16 Jul 90 20:04:00 GMT
References: <2385@uop.uop.edu>
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com
Reply-To: edp@jareth.enet.dec.com (Eric Postpischil (Always mount a scratch monkey.))
Distribution: comp
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 15


> I need an algorithm to uniquely combines these almost
>  infinite measurements into a 4 digit code.  I say almost infinite because
>  all measurements will not excede 999.99 (separately).

No matter what hash scheme you use, there are only 10,000 different
4-digit codes, so 4-digit codes can only encode 10,000 different sets of
measurements.

If each of your three measurements can have a hundred values, that's a
million different
combinations, and you cannot fit them into 4 digits.  Nor into 5.


				-- edp