Hash Comparision (by bits)

I have two hash values I want to compare. The hash value is always 104 characters long. Here is an example: Hash "1" 056908A30289F3ECED61F92E14532302114FE86AD052E4C6182F3D972BC2EC85B915C7000D9351094CD3FF4CABE5A1B8F1F55616 Hash "2" 056A08A30289F3ECED5FF92F145323011150E86AD052E4C6182F3D972BC1EC84B915C7010D9251094CD3FF4CABE5A1B9F1F45616 As you can see with a quick glance, certain values are different but the majority are the same. I already have a string comparision routine, and my string comparision routine shows that these two hash values are 87.5% alike. Now this is where I can get confusing and I may be totally wrong on the wording here. I want to have a value returned to me to tell me how many each of the "bits" are different from each other. I am calling each character in the hash value a "bit". For example here are the first 4 characters "bits" of Hash #1 and Hash #2. Hash #1: "0569" Hash #2: "056A" As you can see here, if I ran this through my string comparision routine, I would be told that the string is 75% alike. However, since we are dealing with "bits", the "9" and the "A" in the 4th character slot in the hash are almost equal. They are just 1 character off from each other. So this hash is not 75% similar, it is a lot more similar if we compare the bits (maybe 98%). I want this routine to work for all 104 characters of this hash. I want to know how similar the "COMPLETE" hashes are to each other when comparing all the bits, and not by just comparing a string to a string which I can already do. I want to compare each bit to each other and come up with a value that lets me know the following: 1 -Percent of hash that is the same 2 -Percent of hash that is different 3 -Number of bits that are the same 4 -Number of bits that are different An "example" of how the function (VB) should be called: Function CompHash(HashA, HashB, Results) HashA would be a string containg the first hash, HashB would be a string containing the second hash, and Results would be a number, either 1, 2, 3, or 4 based on the options I listed above. A function might look like this: Call CompHash("hash 1 example from above", "hash 2 example from above",1) And this would return this value (only a guess) 95 (for 95 percent the same if I passed option 1 to the function, which means I want to know the percentage of the hash bits that are the same). ## Deliverables 1) Complete and fully-functional working program(s) in executable form as well as complete source code of all work done. 2) Installation package that will install the software (in ready-to-run condition) on the platform(s) specified in this bid request. 3) Complete ownership and distribution copyrights to all work purchased. ## Platform It must be a Visual Basic 6.0 public function and be compatible with Windows 95, 98, 98SE, Me, NT, 2000, and XP.