[asterisk-users] Can someone give a plain english explanation of the HASH function?

[MAGUIRE MATTHEW]

> There is no "plain English" explanation that is not made with
reference
> to the concept of a hash, which is an algorithmic and programmatic
> technique.  The HASH() function is designed for people that understand
> what hashing is and need to make use of it.
> ... 
> I would start here:
> 
>    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function

That is a good detailed article, but for a higher level overview of what
the HASH() function is meant to achieve, I would recommend the following
article:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associative_array 

(A hash table is a common way to implement an associate array, but the
article on hash tables goes into a lot of implementation detail that is
not really necessary for understanding how to use the asterisk HASH()
function) 

Others have already listed some good examples of why you might want to
use such a feature in your dialplan.

-Matt.