Hashing a String to a Numeric Value in PostgreSQL - postgresql

Question

I need to Convert Strings stored in my Database to a Numeric value. Result can be Integer (preferred) or Bigint. This conversion is to be done at Database side in a PL/pgSQL function.
Can someone please point me to some algorithm or any API's that can be used to achieve this?
I have been searching for this on Google for hours now, could not find anything useful so far :(

Answer 1

Just keep the first 32 bits or 64 bits of the MD5 hash. Of course, it voids the main property of md5 (=the probability of collision being infinitesimal) but you'll still get a wide dispersion of values which presumably is good enough for your problem.
SQL functions derived from the other answers:
For bigint:
create function h_bigint(text) returns bigint as $$
select ('x'||substr(md5($1),1,16))::bit(64)::bigint;
$$ language sql;
For int:
create function h_int(text) returns int as $$
select ('x'||substr(md5($1),1,8))::bit(32)::int;
$$ language sql;

Answer 2

You can create a md5 hash value without problems:
select md5('hello, world');
This returns a string with a hex number.
Unfortunately there is no built-in function to convert hex to integer but as you are doing that in PL/pgSQL anyway, this might help:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/8316731/330315

Answer 3

PostgreSQL has hash functions for many column types. You can use hashtext if you want integer hash values, or hashtextextended if you prefer bigint hash values.
Note that hashXXXextended functions take one extra parameter for seed and 0 means that no seed will be used.
In the commit message the author Robert Haas says:
Just in case somebody wants a 64-bit hash value that is compatible
with the existing 32-bit hash values, make the low 32-bits of the
64-bit hash value match the 32-bit hash value when the seed is 0.
Example
postgres=# SELECT hashtextextended('test string of type text', 0);
hashtextextended
----------------------
-6578719834206879717
(1 row)
postgres=# SELECT hashtext('test string of type text');
hashtext
-------------
-1790427109
(1 row)
What about other data types?
You can check all available hash functions on your backend by checking the output for \df hash*. Below you can see the functions available in PG 14.0.
hanefi=# \df hash*
List of functions
Schema | Name | Result data type | Argument data types | Type
------------+--------------------------+------------------+--------------------------+------
pg_catalog | hash_aclitem | integer | aclitem | func
pg_catalog | hash_aclitem_extended | bigint | aclitem, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hash_array | integer | anyarray | func
pg_catalog | hash_array_extended | bigint | anyarray, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hash_multirange | integer | anymultirange | func
pg_catalog | hash_multirange_extended | bigint | anymultirange, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hash_numeric | integer | numeric | func
pg_catalog | hash_numeric_extended | bigint | numeric, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hash_range | integer | anyrange | func
pg_catalog | hash_range_extended | bigint | anyrange, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hash_record | integer | record | func
pg_catalog | hash_record_extended | bigint | record, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashbpchar | integer | character | func
pg_catalog | hashbpcharextended | bigint | character, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashchar | integer | "char" | func
pg_catalog | hashcharextended | bigint | "char", bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashenum | integer | anyenum | func
pg_catalog | hashenumextended | bigint | anyenum, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashfloat4 | integer | real | func
pg_catalog | hashfloat4extended | bigint | real, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashfloat8 | integer | double precision | func
pg_catalog | hashfloat8extended | bigint | double precision, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashhandler | index_am_handler | internal | func
pg_catalog | hashinet | integer | inet | func
pg_catalog | hashinetextended | bigint | inet, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashint2 | integer | smallint | func
pg_catalog | hashint2extended | bigint | smallint, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashint4 | integer | integer | func
pg_catalog | hashint4extended | bigint | integer, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashint8 | integer | bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashint8extended | bigint | bigint, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashmacaddr | integer | macaddr | func
pg_catalog | hashmacaddr8 | integer | macaddr8 | func
pg_catalog | hashmacaddr8extended | bigint | macaddr8, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashmacaddrextended | bigint | macaddr, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashname | integer | name | func
pg_catalog | hashnameextended | bigint | name, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashoid | integer | oid | func
pg_catalog | hashoidextended | bigint | oid, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashoidvector | integer | oidvector | func
pg_catalog | hashoidvectorextended | bigint | oidvector, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashtext | integer | text | func
pg_catalog | hashtextextended | bigint | text, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashtid | integer | tid | func
pg_catalog | hashtidextended | bigint | tid, bigint | func
pg_catalog | hashvarlena | integer | internal | func
pg_catalog | hashvarlenaextended | bigint | internal, bigint | func
(47 rows)
Caveats
If you want to have consistent hashes across different systems, make sure you have the same collation behaviour.
The built-in collatable data types are text, varchar, and char. If you have different collation options, you can see different hash values. For example the sort order of the strings ‘a-a’ and ‘a+a’ flipped in glibc 2.28 (Debian 10, RHEL 8) compared to earlier releases.
If you wish to use the hashes on the same machine, you need not worry, as long as you do not update glibc or use a different collation.
See more details at: https://www.citusdata.com/blog/2020/12/12/dont-let-collation-versions-corrupt-your-postgresql-indexes/

Answer 4

Must it be an integer? The pg_crypto module provides a number of standard hash functions (md5, sha1, etc). They all return bytea. I suppose you could throw away some bits and convert bytea to integer.
bigint is too small to store a cryptographic hash. The largest non-bytea binary type Pg supports is uuid. You could cast a digest to uuid like this:
select ('{'||encode( substring(digest('foobar','sha256') from 1 for 16), 'hex')||'}')::uuid;
uuid
--------------------------------------
c3ab8ff1-3720-e8ad-9047-dd39466b3c89

Answer 5

This is an implementation of Java's String.hashCode():
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION hashCode(_string text) RETURNS INTEGER AS $$
DECLARE
val_ CHAR[];
h_ INTEGER := 0;
ascii_ INTEGER;
c_ char;
BEGIN
val_ = regexp_split_to_array(_string, '');
FOR i in 1 .. array_length(val_, 1)
LOOP
c_ := (val_)[i];
ascii_ := ascii(c_);
h_ = 31 * h_ + ascii_;
raise info '%: % = %', i, c_, h_;
END LOOP;
RETURN h_;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;