Not to nit-pick here... :-D ... but if someone were determined to misunderstand the OP, it would still be possible to do so.   ;-D

The specific thing that is triggering my uncertainty is the comment, “to use as a search key.”   You probably wouldn’t be expecting to use a JSON-string as a search key; but a SHA1 digest, you might.

It’s kinda like the old saw about a computer program finding five different valid parses to the string, “Time flies like an arrow.”   You could even parse “save hash to a file” in two different ways:   save(hash, to_file) or save(hash(file)).

Aww, heck ... obviously, it is time for more coffee.

TMTOWTCY = There's More Than One Way To Confuse Yourself