I wanted a short bit of code to generate a checksum on a file or a bit of text, but without requiring the use of MD5 or similar has programs. Following is the function, named ghash for "generate hash" and a couple of lines calling the function to demonstrate that it works. In tests I found that increasing the size of the multiplier past a certain point does not change in the return value when two characters in a larger test file are transposed. However, I remain uncertain if the multiplier is at an optimal value.

$theText = "abc def ghi";
print "this value for $theText == " , ghash($theText), "\n";

$theText = "acb def ghi";
print "this value for $theText == " , ghash($theText), "\n";

#####################
sub ghash()
{
my ($str) = @_;
my $y = length($str);

my $ret = 0;
for(my $i = 0; $i < $y; )
   {
   $ret += ord( substr($str, $i,1)) * (++$i);
   }
return $ret;
}
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