  We summarize the key results of a recent global analysis of inclusive
single-charged-hadron production in high-energy colliding-beam experiments. In
the framework of the parton model of quantum chromodynamics at next-to-leading
order (NLO), fragmentation functions (FFs) for charged pions, charged kaons,
and (anti) protons are extracted from experimental data of e^+e^- annihilation
at the Z-boson resonance and at centre-of-mass energy root(s) = 29 GeV. This
fit also yields a new NLO value for the strong-coupling constant, namely
alpha_s^(5)(M_Z) = 0.1170 +- 0.0073. The scaling violations encoded in the FFs
through the Altarelli-Parisi evolution equations are tested by confronting
(e^+e^-)-annihilation data from DESY DORIS, DESY PETRA, and CERN LEP2 with NLO
predictions based on these FFs. Comparisons of p p-bar data from CERN S p p-bar
S and the Fermilab Tevatron, gamma p data from DESY HERA, and gamma gamma data
from LEP2 with the corresponding NLO predictions allow us to test the
universality of the FFs predicted by the factorization theorem.
