FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER

Detailed explanation-1: -Hash function coverts data of arbitrary length to a fixed length. This process is often referred to as hashing the data.

Detailed explanation-2: -The input to a hash function is a file or stream of any size and the output is a fixed-size digital representation of the file that is normally less than 1KB and serves as the fingerprint of the original file (often called the message digest). It is impossible to reconstruct the original file with only the fingerprint.

Detailed explanation-3: -A hash function is a versatile one-way cryptographic algorithm that maps an input of any size to a unique output of a fixed length of bits. The resulting output, which is known as a hash digest, hash value, or hash code, is the resulting unique identifier we mentioned earlier.

Detailed explanation-4: -The hashing functions return a 128-bit, 160-bit, 256-bit, or 512-bit hash of the input data, depending on the algorithm selected.

Detailed explanation-5: -A hash function is any function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size to fixed-size values, though there are some hash functions that support variable length output. The values returned by a hash function are called hash values, hash codes, digests, or simply hashes.