Nicer interface to convert hashlib digests to int

[stevendaprano]

BPO	27925
Nosy	@rhettinger, @stevendaprano, @bitdancer, @serhiy-storchaka

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields: ```python assignee = None closed_at = None created_at = labels = ['type-feature'] title = 'Nicer interface to convert hashlib digests to int' updated_at = user = 'https://github.com/stevendaprano' ``` bugs.python.org fields: ```python activity = actor = 'serhiy.storchaka' assignee = 'none' closed = False closed_date = None closer = None components = [] creation = creator = 'steven.daprano' dependencies = [] files = [] hgrepos = [] issue_num = 27925 keywords = [] message_count = 4.0 messages = ['274102', '274141', '274147', '274173'] nosy_count = 4.0 nosy_names = ['rhettinger', 'steven.daprano', 'r.david.murray', 'serhiy.storchaka'] pr_nums = [] priority = 'normal' resolution = None stage = 'needs patch' status = 'open' superseder = None type = 'enhancement' url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue27925' versions = [] ```

[stevendaprano]

hashlib digests should have a nicer interface to allow conversion to ints.

Currently we write int(x.hexdigest(), 16) which is less than obvious and easy to get wrong. It would be nice to be able to just say int(x) (that's my strong preference) or x.as_int().

Use-case: sometimes we need to store hashes in a database table which, for historical reasons, is an integer.

[bitdancer]

+1 I just wanted this recently. Also note that going through hexdigest/int isn't particularly efficient, so an object-supported fast way to do this would be nice.

[rhettinger]

"int(x)" looks nice to me as well.

[serhiy-storchaka]

There is another way:

int.from_bytes(x.digest(), 'big')

Note that converting to int you lose the length of the digest. md5 digest d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e and sha1 digest 00000000d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e are converted to the same int. This can add a vulnerability.