On Sat, Mar 07, 2009 at 09:33:33PM -0500, V S P wrote: > I would like to have a function > given a user id varchar(64) to get a hash number between 0 and 255. > > I first tried md5 but the number it returns is very big and cannot > be converted to an INT > > there is likely a way to simply add ascii values of the userId together > to get a small integer, but wanted to know if there are any other > 'built-in' ways > > this is to get the database id based on user id. this is bad idea, as there will be collisions. better use sequential ids. but if you *have to*: select hashtext('username') % 128 + 127; depesz; -- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/depesz / blog: http://www.depesz.com/ jid/gtalk: depesz@xxxxxxxxxx / aim:depeszhdl / skype:depesz_hdl / gg:6749007 -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general