Generate a Hash from string in Javascript

Question

I need to convert strings to some form of hash. Is this possible in JavaScript?

I\'m not utilizing a server-side language so I can\'t do it that way.

Answer 1

EDIT

based on my jsperf tests, the accepted answer is actually faster: http://jsperf.com/hashcodelordvlad

ORIGINAL

if anyone is interested, here is an improved ( faster ) version, which will fail on older browsers who lack the reduce array function.

hashCode = function(s){
  return s.split("").reduce(function(a,b){a=((a<<5)-a)+b.charCodeAt(0);return a&a},0);              
}

one-liner arrow function version :

hashCode = s => s.split('').reduce((a,b)=>{a=((a<<5)-a)+b.charCodeAt(0);return a&a},0)