Positive integer from Python hash() function

Question

I want to use the Python hash() function to get integer hashes from objects. But built-in hash() can give negative values, and I want only positive. And I want it to work sensibly on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.

I.e. on 32-bit Python, hash() can return an integer in the range -2**31 to 2**31 - 1. On 64-bit systems, hash() can return an integer in the range -2**63 to 2**63 - 1.

But I want a hash in the range 0 to 2**32-1 on 32-bit systems, and 0 to 2**64-1 on 64-bit systems.

What is the best way to convert the hash value to its equivalent positive value within the range of the 32- or 64-bit target platform?

(Context: I'm trying to make a new random.Random style class. According to the random.Random.seed() docs, the seed "optional argument x can be any hashable object." So I'd like to duplicate that functionality, except that my seed algorithm can't handle negative integer values, only positive.)

Answer 1

Using sys.maxsize:

>>> import sys >>> sys.maxsize 9223372036854775807L >>> hash('asdf') -618826466 >>> hash('asdf') % ((sys.maxsize + 1) * 2) 18446744073090725150L 

Alternative using ctypes.c_size_t:

>>> import ctypes >>> ctypes.c_size_t(hash('asdf')).value 18446744073090725150L