Abstract: A method and an apparatus are disclosed for converting error syndromes of an error-correcting code to pointers which identify the positions of the erroneous bits. Each syndrome is converted by a plurality of hashing functions into a plurality of hash words, which in turn are used to address a plurality of read-only stores. The outputs of the read-only stores are logically combined to obtain the respective error pointer. A preferred embodiment uses three hashing functions (41, 43, 45) and three read-only stores (53, 55, 57) and combines their outputs by an Exclusive-Or function (59). The storage capacity and the processing time required for syndrome-to-error pointer conversion are reduced by the disclosed scheme.