need help in undestanding CRC32

zulfi123786 · Post by **zulfi123786** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:25 am

Hi,

I have a column varchar(300) for which i am aplying CRC32 funtion, I want to know if there is a chance that any two different values may have same result from this function?

fareeda_b · Post by **fareeda_b** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:12 am

Hai ,

viewtopic.php?t=118781&highlight=CRC32

Hopefully it will help you .

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:21 am

Yes.

What are you using the CRC32 value for, why are you generating it? If you are thinking it will create a unique surrogate key, that is not the right thing to be using it for.

zulfi123786 · Post by **zulfi123786** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:43 am

well i am using it to capture the changed records and want to know that if there is any possibility that two different records upon comparision using CRC32 result would have the same result.

chulett · Post by **chulett** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:00 pm

Yes, a very very remote chance but a chance none-the-less. Still, I wouldn't let that dissuade you from using it for CDD as you are doing as that is the typical use for it here as a search would reveal.