HASHBYTES

Returns the MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA, SHA1, or SHA2 hash of its input.

Syntax

HASHBYTES ( '<algorithm>', { @input | 'input' } )

<algorithm>::= MD2 | MD4 | MD5 | SHA | SHA1 | SHA2_256 | SHA2_512

Arguments

'<algorithm>'

Identifies the hashing algorithm to be used to hash the input. This is a required argument with no default. The single quotation marks are required.

@input

Specifies a variable containing the data to be hashed. @input is varchar, nvarchar, or varbinary.

' input '

Specifies an expression that evaluates to a character or binary string to be hashed.

The output conforms to the algorithm standard: 128 bits (16 bytes) for MD2, MD4, and MD5; 160 bits (20 bytes) for SHA and SHA1; 256 bits (32 bytes) for SHA2_256, and 512 bits (64 bytes) for SHA2_512.

Return types

varbinary (maximum 8000 bytes)

Example

SELECT HASHBYTES('SHA2_256', 0x4234123412341234);

See Also