sindresorhus/sdbm

SDBM non-cryptographic hash function

JavaScript

52

14 commits

updated Sep 15, 2025

See the code

README

sdbm

SDBM non-cryptographic hash function

SDBM has good distribution and collisions are rare.

The implementation uses BigInt internally for precision, avoiding integer overflow issues that can occur with JavaScript's regular number type when processing long strings.

Install

npm install sdbm

Usage

import sdbm from 'sdbm';

// Hash a string (UTF-16 code units by default)
sdbm('🦄🌈');
//=> 4053542802

// Hash a string as UTF-8 bytes for cross-language compatibility
sdbm('🦄🌈', {bytes: true});
//=> 958678968

// Hash bytes directly
sdbm(new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]));
//=> 8392706

// Return a 64-bit BigInt instead of a 32-bit number
sdbm.bigint('🦄🌈');
//=> 15627115794743961490n

// BigInt with UTF-8 bytes
sdbm.bigint('🦄🌈', {bytes: true});
//=> 3515396257032193976n

API

sdbm(input, options?)

Returns the hash as a positive 32-bit integer.

input

Type: string | Uint8Array

The input to hash. Strings are hashed as UTF-16 code units by default (see options.bytes to change this).

options

Type: object

bytes

Type: boolean
Default: false

Interpret the string as UTF-8 encoded bytes instead of UTF-16 code units.

This provides compatibility with SDBM implementations in other languages, which typically operate on UTF-8 bytes.

sdbm.bigint(input, options?)

Returns the hash as a positive 64-bit BigInt.

Accepts the same arguments as the main function.

Implementation notes

By default, this implementation processes strings as UTF-16 code units using JavaScript's charCodeAt method. This makes it a JavaScript-specific variant of SDBM that differs from the original C implementation (which operates on bytes) for non-ASCII characters.

Use the bytes option to encode strings as UTF-8 for compatibility with other language implementations.

  • fnv1a - FNV-1a non-cryptographic hash function
  • djb2a - DJB2a non-cryptographic hash function
hashing
node-module
non-cryptographic-hash-functions
npm-package
sdbm

sindresorhus/sdbm

SDBM non-cryptographic hash function

JavaScript

52

14 commits

updated Sep 15, 2025

See the code

README

sdbm

SDBM non-cryptographic hash function

SDBM has good distribution and collisions are rare.

The implementation uses BigInt internally for precision, avoiding integer overflow issues that can occur with JavaScript's regular number type when processing long strings.

Install

npm install sdbm

Usage

import sdbm from 'sdbm';

// Hash a string (UTF-16 code units by default)
sdbm('🦄🌈');
//=> 4053542802

// Hash a string as UTF-8 bytes for cross-language compatibility
sdbm('🦄🌈', {bytes: true});
//=> 958678968

// Hash bytes directly
sdbm(new Uint8Array([1, 2, 3]));
//=> 8392706

// Return a 64-bit BigInt instead of a 32-bit number
sdbm.bigint('🦄🌈');
//=> 15627115794743961490n

// BigInt with UTF-8 bytes
sdbm.bigint('🦄🌈', {bytes: true});
//=> 3515396257032193976n

API

sdbm(input, options?)

Returns the hash as a positive 32-bit integer.

input

Type: string | Uint8Array

The input to hash. Strings are hashed as UTF-16 code units by default (see options.bytes to change this).

options

Type: object

bytes

Type: boolean
Default: false

Interpret the string as UTF-8 encoded bytes instead of UTF-16 code units.

This provides compatibility with SDBM implementations in other languages, which typically operate on UTF-8 bytes.

sdbm.bigint(input, options?)

Returns the hash as a positive 64-bit BigInt.

Accepts the same arguments as the main function.

Implementation notes

By default, this implementation processes strings as UTF-16 code units using JavaScript's charCodeAt method. This makes it a JavaScript-specific variant of SDBM that differs from the original C implementation (which operates on bytes) for non-ASCII characters.

Use the bytes option to encode strings as UTF-8 for compatibility with other language implementations.

  • fnv1a - FNV-1a non-cryptographic hash function
  • djb2a - DJB2a non-cryptographic hash function
hashing
node-module
non-cryptographic-hash-functions
npm-package
sdbm

Project health

Overall

3.0/10

Maintained

0/10

Code review

2/10
OpenSSF Scorecard

npm

Latest release

3.0.0 · Sep 15, 2025

Releases this year

0

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3,743 followers · starred Sep 2026

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