In a method for performing an exact match lookup in a network device, a network packet is received at the network device. A lookup key for the network packet is determined at least based on data included in a header of the received network packet. A hash function is selected, from among a plurality of possible hash functions, at least based on a size of the lookup key, and a hash operation is performed on the lookup key using the selected hash function to compute a hashed lookup key segment. A database is queried using the hashed lookup key segment to extract a value exactly corresponding to the lookup key.