Abstract: A PATRICIA trie index is very small. However, the index is quite difficult to navigate with efficiency and is prone to traversal errors. An inventive method and apparatus is discussed for computing key hashes in PATRICIA trie nodes using restartable hash algorithms. The invention herein increases performance and overcomes the limitations of other hashing systems used in PATRICIA tries, thus allowing for long chains of hashes to be composed together. This enables reasoning about key strings that match multiple intervening hash sections.