I'm trying to compare two graphs using hash value ( i.e, at the time of comparison, try to avoid traversing the graph ) Is there a way to make a function such that the hash values compared can also lead to determining at which height the graphs differ? The comparisons between two graphs are to be made by comparing children at a certain level. One way to compare the graphs is have a final hash value for the root node and compare them, but that wouldn't directly reflect at which level the graphs differ, since their immediate children might be the same ( or any other case ).