hashing

the file-access method used by Pick to find items in a file

The characters composing the item-id are combined to produce an internal number which is then divided by the 'modulo' of the file to determine which 'group' the item resides in. The group is then linearly searched until the item is found.

The hashing is done by default in a case insensitive way, i.e., 'a' and 'A' yield the same hash value. This can be changed on a file by file basis by changing the file-defining item from a type 'D' to a type 'DS'.