fast-hashring

fast-hashring is a lightweight JavaScript library offering efficient implementations of consistent hashing:

• A classic consistent hash ring with virtual nodes (balanced distribution, minimal remapping)
• Jump Consistent Hash (Lamping & Veach) mapping keys directly to bucket indexes with O(1) memory

Designed for high performance, it provides fast and scalable key distribution, ideal for load balancing, caching, and data sharding in distributed systems.

Installation

Install via npm:

npm install fast-hashring

Or using yarn:

yarn add fast-hashring

Usage

Here’s a basic example of how to integrate fast-hashring into your project:

import ConsistentHash from "fast-hashring";

const ch = new ConsistentHash({ virtualNodes: 100 });
ch.addNode("server1");
ch.addNode("server2");

const node = ch.getNode("my-key");
console.log(`Key is assigned to node: ${node}`);

Jump Consistent Hash (no ring, O(1) memory)

Jump Consistent Hash maps a string key to a stable index in [0, N). This is useful when you just need a bucket index (e.g., shard number) without maintaining a ring of nodes.

// Note: runtime import path uses the file path; default export remains ConsistentHash
import JumpConsistentHash from "fast-hashring/jump-hash.js";

const jch = new JumpConsistentHash(16); // 16 buckets
const idx = jch.getIndex("user-123"); // deterministic value in 0..15

TypeScript note: types for both classes are exposed via the package types entry.

// Values
import ConsistentHash from "fast-hashring";
import JumpConsistentHash from "fast-hashring/jump-hash.js";

// Types (optional)
import type { ConsistentHash as ConsistentHashType, JumpConsistentHash as JumpConsistentHashType } from "fast-hashring";

Features

• Consistent Hashing with Virtual Nodes:
  Utilizes virtual nodes to distribute keys evenly across real nodes, minimizing load imbalance during node changes.

• Binary Search for Rapid Lookups:
  Maintains a sorted hash ring of virtual nodes, enabling quick key lookups using an optimized binary search algorithm.

• Jump Consistent Hash (Lamping & Veach):
  Minimal-memory O(1) approach that maps keys directly to bucket indexes in [0, N), great for sharding. Buckets must be numbered 0..N-1.

• High Performance & Scalability:
  The design focuses on speed and efficiency, ensuring low latency and high throughput even with large-scale deployments.

• Simple & Intuitive API:
  Easy-to-use methods for adding, removing, and retrieving nodes enable quick integration into projects.

• TypeScript Support:
  Complete TypeScript definitions are provided, offering strong typing and an improved developer experience.

Why Choose fast-hashring?

fast-hashring delivers superior performance by leveraging virtual nodes and binary search, providing a more balanced and efficient key distribution compared to traditional hashing methods. Whether you're scaling a distributed cache, load balancer, or sharded database, fast-hashring minimizes remapping and disruption, ensuring high availability and smooth performance.

Testing

The library is tested using Bun's testing framework. To run the tests, execute:

bun test

License

MIT