This paper consists of three parts. First, we give so far the best condition under which the shift invariance of the counting function, and of the characteristic of a subharmonic function, holds. Second, a difference analogue of logarithmic derivative of a
δ
\delta
-subharmonic function is established allowing the case of hyper-order equal to one and minimal hyper-type, which improves the condition of the hyper-order less than one. Finally, we make a careful discussion of a well-known difference equation and give the possible forms of the equation under a growth condition for the solutions.