string hashing - djb2 Hash Function

Question

I am using the djb2 algorithm to generate the hash key for a string which is as follows

hash(unsigned char *str)
{
    unsigned long hash = 5381;
    int c;

    while (c = *str++)
        hash = ((hash << 5) + hash) + c; /* hash * 33 + c */

    return hash;
}

Now with every loop there is a multiplication with two big numbers, After some time with the 4th of 5th character of the string there is a overflow as the hash value becomes huge

What is the correct way to refactor so that the hash value does not overflow and the hashing also happens correctly

Answer 1

Hash calculations often overflow. That's generally not a problem at all, so long as you have guarantees about what's going to happen when it does overflow. Don't forget that the point of a hash isn't to have a number which means something in terms of magniture etc - it's just a way of detecting equality. Why would overflow interfere with that?