Ok, thank you using \df *hash* from psql prompt I can see that is how I have to access this function select pg_catalog.hashtext('myusername') I will also play with other suggestions of get_byte of the MD5 result casted to a string. thanks again for all the replies, Vlad On Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:17 -0700, "Scott Marlowe" <scott.marlowe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 7:33 PM, V S P <toreason@xxxxxxxxxxx> 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. > > In psql type this: > > \df *hash* -- V S P toreason@xxxxxxxxxxx -- http://www.fastmail.fm - The professional email service -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general