You're usually on the ball, which is why I'm a little confused that you didn't just run the corresponding hash functions on an arbitrary piece of text, say the string: "Some test characters for the hash function" and compare the results.

Also run them on the empty string "" just to be sure.

It used to be that such functions would use the underlying system libraries, but now languages tend to use their own library functions. Nonetheless if it says 'MD5' I'd guess there's a high chance they will be the same function. There's probably a standard somewhere.

Update: My thinking, which may not be clear to casual bystanders, is that if two functions both claiming to be MD5 hashing functions return the same values for the null value and any other representative value then they are probably the same function. I keep thinking that I want the kernel (or nullspace) and a basis but that's not going to work because the functions are many-to-one. Wait four months till I finish my crypto course and then I'll be able to tell you :D

____________________
Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.