A typical hash function at work. Note that the hash sums are always the same size, no matter how short or long the input is. Also note that the hash sums look very different even when there are only slight differences in the input.

The hash sums seen here (in hexadecimal format) are actually the first four bytes of the SHA-1 hash sums of those text examples.

Original illustration for Wikipedia.

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Based on en:Image:Hash_function.png, remade as vector graphics.

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Vietnamese version: Image:Hash function vi.svg. Catalan version: Image:Funció_resum_ca.svg.