hash

This page explains how to use the hash function in APL.

Use the hash scalar function to transform any data type as a string of bytes into a signed integer. The result is deterministic so the value is always identical given the same input data.

Use the hash function to:

• Anonymise personally identifiable information (PII) while preserving joinability.
• Create reproducible buckets for sampling, sharding, or load-balancing.
• Build low-cardinality keys for fast aggregation and look-ups.
• You need a reversible-by-key surrogate or a quick way to distribute rows evenly.

Don’t use hash to generate values for long term usage. hash is generic and the underlying hashing algorithm may change. For long term stability, use the other hash functions with specific algorithm like hash_sha1.

For users of other query languages

If you come from other query languages, this section explains how to adjust your existing queries to achieve the same results in APL.

Splunk SPL users

Splunk’s hash (or md5, sha1, etc.) returns a hexadecimal string and lets you pick an algorithm. In APL hash always returns a 64-bit integer that trades cryptographic strength for speed and compactness. Use hash_sha256 if you need a cryptographically secure digest.

Splunk example

... | eval anon_id = md5(id) | stats count by anon_id

ANSI SQL users

Standard SQL often exposes vendor-specific functions such as HASH (BigQuery), HASH_BYTES (SQL Server), or MD5. These return either bytes or hex strings. In APL hash always yields an int64. To emulate SQL’s modulo bucketing, pipe the result into the arithmetic operator that you need.

SQL example

SELECT HASH(id) % 10 AS bucket, COUNT(*) AS requests
FROM sample_http_logs
GROUP BY bucket

Usage

Syntax

hash(source [, salt])

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
valsourceue	scalar	Any scalar expression except real.
salt	int	(Optional) Salt that lets you derive a different 64-bit domain while keeping determinism.

Returns

The signed integer hash of source (and salt if supplied).

Use case examples

Log analysis

Hash requesters to see your busiest anonymous users.

Query

['sample-http-logs']
| extend anon_id = hash(id)
| summarize requests = count() by anon_id
| top 5 by requests

Run in Playground

Output

anon_id	requests
-5872831405421830129	128
902175364502087611	97
-354879610945237854	85
6423087105927348713	74
-919087345721004317	69

The query replaces raw IDs with hashed surrogates, counts requests per surrogate, then lists the five most active requesters without exposing PII.