I'm looking for a Perl string checksum function with the following properties:

  • Input: Unicode string of undefined length ($string)
  • Output: Unsigned integer ($hash), for which 0 <= $hash <= 2^32-1 holds (0 to 4294967295, matching the size of a 4-byte MySQL unsigned int)

Pseudo-code:

sub checksum {
    my $string = shift;
    my $hash;
    ... checksum logic goes here ...
    die unless ($hash >= 0);
    die unless ($hash <= 4_294_967_295);
    return $hash;
}

Ideally the checksum function should be quick to run and should generate values somewhat uniformly in the target space (0 .. 2^32-1) to avoid collisions. In this application random collisions are totally non-fatal, but obviously I want to avoid them to the extent that it is possible.

Given these requirements, what is the best way to solve this?

perl string checksum cpan hashcode
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