Re: [PATCH] Add crc32(text) & crc32(bytea)

Hi Nathan,

> I don't think adding crc32c() would sufficiently increase the scope. We'd
> use the existing implementations for both crc32() and crc32c(). And
> besides, this could be useful for adding tests for that code.
>
> + <function>crc32</function> ( <type>text</type> )
>
> Do we need a version of the function that takes a text input? It's easy
> enough to cast to a bytea.
>
> + <returnvalue>text</returnvalue>
>
> My first reaction is that we should just have this return bytea like the
> SHA ones do, if for no other reason than commit 10cfce3 seems intended to
> move us away from returning text for these kinds of functions. Upthread,
> you mentioned the possibility of returning a bigint, too. I think I'd
> still prefer bytea in case we want to add, say, crc64() or crc16() in the
> future. That would allow us to keep all of these functions consistent
> instead of returning different types for each. However, I understand that
> returning the numeric types might be more convenient. I'm curious what
> others think about this.
>
> + Computes the CRC32 <link linkend="functions-hash-note">hash</link> of
> + the binary string, with the result written in hexadecimal.
>
> I'm not sure we should call the check values "hashes." Wikipedia does
> include them in the "List of hash functions" page [0], but it seems to
> deliberately avoid calling them hashes in the CRC page [1]. I'd suggest
> calling them "CRC32 values" instead.

Thanks for the code review. Here is the updated patch.

--
Best regards,
Aleksander Alekseev