Keyed hashing vs salted hashing
HashingSha256(myText + saltValue)
vs
HMAC(myText, myPrivateKey)
The main difference is that the salt is not assumed unknown to the attacker, but the key is.
An additional difference is that salts are supposed to vary; if you hash three passwords…
Hashing function
HashingHashing is one way, it's irreversible (you cannot "de-hash" a hash to get back the original text).
As opposed to encrypting which is revisable (by decrypting).
A hash function is any function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size…