Good implementation for the hashCode() for String objects

[Usha Pnatha]

Hello Ranchers,

I'm required to implement a hashCode() for String objects. Each String will contain maximum 20 characters.

I went through the implementation in java.lang.String class. It's basically as follows:
s[0]*31^(n-1) + s[1]*31^(n-2) + ... + s[n-1]

Since there's no perfect hashing method, I believe that there can be alternatives to this way of implementation.

So, if anyone of you found a different implementation of the hashCode() for String objects(which would be more efficient than the provided one), please post you ideas here.

Thanks in advance,
Usha

[David Newton]

It might be quicker to search the web for different hash code implementations--there are a lot.