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Subject: Re: Squashing Hash Table Bugs

Author: James Swafford

Date: 13:11:42 05/29/04

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On May 29, 2004 at 14:20:43, Frank Phillips wrote:

>On May 29, 2004 at 12:50:57, James Swafford wrote:
>
>>On May 29, 2004 at 12:50:12, Bas Hamstra wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>On May 29, 2004 at 11:10:47, James Swafford wrote:
>>>
>>>>In a recent post, Tord suggested setting a flag in
>>>>the search when the hash table suggests a fail high, and
>>>>testing whether the search would indeed fail high.
>>>>
>>>>The idea seems so simple I'm embarassed I haven't thought
>>>>of it before. :)
>>>>
>>>>I've been 'pretty sure' for a long time that I've got some
>>>>nasty hash bugs.  I'm in the mood to exterminate them.
>>>>
>>>>Last night I implemented Tord's idea and, to my dismay
>>>>(but not to my surprise) my hash table is saying 'fail
>>>>high' when the search wouldn't have failed high.  And-
>>>>it doesn't take very long. :)
>>>>
>>>>This seems like a nasty thing to debug.  I'm comtemplating
>>>>how I might go about it.  I'm hoping some of you can
>>>>provide some suggestions...
>>>>
>>>>--
>>>>James
>>>
>>>What you describe is not a good way of finding HT bugs, IMO. To start with, hash
>>>can cause inconsistent search results, even with completely bugfree code. Want
>>>to track hash bugs? Do this: write code to completely recalculate hashkey from
>>>scratch. Compare this key with the incremental key at every node. Analyze and
>>>fix differences until they are all gone.
>>
>>I already do this... my keys are fine.
>
>Have you added debug code to check that the position in the hash table is the
>same as that 'on the board'?

Probably not in the way you mean.  If I get a 'hit', meaning
there is an entry in the hash table, I do verify the full
64 bit key.  I don't have any code to add the entire board
structure to table, though.  Is that what you mean?

--
James



>
>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Bas.



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