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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
FileHash
  • See Also
    • FileSize
    • FileByteCount
    • FileDate
    • Hash
    • BinaryReadList
    • FileFormat
  • Related Guides
    • Cryptographic Number Theory
    • Compression and Archive Formats
    • File Operations
    • Files
    • External Operations
    • Cryptography
    • See Also
      • FileSize
      • FileByteCount
      • FileDate
      • Hash
      • BinaryReadList
      • FileFormat
    • Related Guides
      • Cryptographic Number Theory
      • Compression and Archive Formats
      • File Operations
      • Files
      • External Operations
      • Cryptography

FileHash[file]

gives an integer hash code for the contents of the specified file.

FileHash[file,"type"]

gives an integer hash of the specified type.

FileHash[file,"type","format"]

gives a hash code in the specified format.

FileHash[{file,range},…]

gives the hash code for the specified range of bytes.

FileHash[{filespec1,filespec2,…},…]

gives the hash codes for a list of files.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
File and Range Specifications  
Hash Types and Formats  
Properties & Relations  
See Also
Related Guides
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • FileSize
    • FileByteCount
    • FileDate
    • Hash
    • BinaryReadList
    • FileFormat
  • Related Guides
    • Cryptographic Number Theory
    • Compression and Archive Formats
    • File Operations
    • Files
    • External Operations
    • Cryptography
    • See Also
      • FileSize
      • FileByteCount
      • FileDate
      • Hash
      • BinaryReadList
      • FileFormat
    • Related Guides
      • Cryptographic Number Theory
      • Compression and Archive Formats
      • File Operations
      • Files
      • External Operations
      • Cryptography

FileHash

FileHash[file]

gives an integer hash code for the contents of the specified file.

FileHash[file,"type"]

gives an integer hash of the specified type.

FileHash[file,"type","format"]

gives a hash code in the specified format.

FileHash[{file,range},…]

gives the hash code for the specified range of bytes.

FileHash[{filespec1,filespec2,…},…]

gives the hash codes for a list of files.

Details

  • Values generated by FileHash are based on the raw bytes in a file.
  • Files may be specified as "file", File["file"], CloudObject["url"] or InputStream[…]. Input streams must have been opened with BinaryFormatTrue.
  • FileHash supports the following range specifications:
  • nfirst n bytes
    -nlast n bytes
    {n}byte n only
    {m,n}bytes m through n
    0no bytes
    Allall bytes
  • FileHash[{stream,range},…] effectively extracts data at the specified range of byte positions in an input stream, ignoring any previous stream position.
  • Each filespec can be either file or {file,range}.
  • Possible hash code types include:
  • "Adler32"Adler 32-bit cyclic redundancy check
    "CRC32"32-bit cyclic redundancy check
    "MD2"128-bit MD2 code
    "MD4"128-bit MD4 code
    "MD5"128-bit MD5 code (default)
    "RIPEMD160"160-bit RIPEMD code
    "RIPEMD160SHA256"RIPEMD-160 following SHA-256 (as used in Bitcoin)
    "SHA"160-bit SHA-1 code
    "SHA256"256-bit SHA code
    "SHA256SHA256"double SHA-256 code (as used in Bitcoin)
    "SHA384"384-bit SHA code
    "SHA512"512-bit SHA code
    "SHA3-224"224-bit SHA3 code
    "SHA3-256"256-bit SHA3 code
    "SHA3-384"384-bit SHA3 code
    "SHA3-512"512-bit SHA3 code
    "Keccak224"224-bit Keccak code
    "Keccak256"256-bit Keccak code
    "Keccak384"384-bit Keccak code
    "Keccak512"512-bit Keccak code
  • FileHash by default uses 128-bit MD5 code.
  • Possible formats include:
  • "Integer"integer (default)
    "DecimalString"decimal string
    "HexString"hexadecimal string
    "Base36String"base-36 alphanumeric string
    "Base64Encoding"Base64 encoding
    "ByteArray"hash code as an explicit byte array
  • For compatibility with earlier versions of the Wolfram Language, the syntaxes FileHash[file,"type",range] and FileHash[file,"type",range,"format"] are also supported.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (5)

The fingerprint of a file:

The "SHA512" hash code of a file:

The "SHA512" hash code of the first 100 bytes of a file:

The "MD5" hash code in hexadecimal form:

Hash of a CloudObject:

Scope  (11)

File and Range Specifications  (6)

Compute a hash for the first 100 bytes of a file:

Equivalently:

Compute a hash for the last 100 bytes:

Equivalently:

Compute a hash for bytes 100 through 200:

Compute a hash for all bytes except the first 100 or the last 100:

Compute the hash for byte 100 only:

Compute a hash for no bytes:

Compute the hashes of several files:

Find the hash for a complete file as well as several subsets of it:

Create a CloudObject:

Find the hash of the data contained in the CloudObject:

By default, MD5 hash of the full range is calculated:

For hashing, the data from the CloudObject is represented as a string including the newline:

The same hash using the sequence of bytes:

Open a binary stream:

Compute its hash:

The same result is given independently of the current stream position:

Close the stream:

Create an empty file and cloud object:

Put the same content in the file and cloud object:

Also open a stream pointing at the file:

The hashes of all three objects are the same:

Close the stream:

Hash Types and Formats  (5)

Compare different hash codes:

512-bit SHA code given as an integer:

512-bit SHA code given as a decimal string, including leading zeros:

Compare the different string representations of a hash:

The double SHA code of the first 50 bytes of a file, given as a ByteArray:

The byte array contains the 256 bits of the result:

View the individual bytes in the array:

Properties & Relations  (10)

The default format is "MD5":

The default range specification is All:

This is equivalent to {-1,1}:

Hashing zero bytes is equivalent to finding the hash of an empty file:

"Integer" is the default format:

"DecimalString" is the string version of "Integer", padded with zeros if necessary:

"HexString" is a base-16 representation, padded with zeros if necessary:

"Base36String" is a base-36 representation, padded with zeros if necessary:

"Base64Encoding" encodes bytes of the result using Base64 encoding:

FileHash[file,code] is effectively equivalent to Hash[ReadByteArray[file],code]:

FileHash[file,code] is effectively equivalent to Hash[ByteArray@Import[file,"Byte"]]:

See Also

FileSize  FileByteCount  FileDate  Hash  BinaryReadList  FileFormat

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Cryptographic Number Theory
  • ▪
  • Compression and Archive Formats
  • ▪
  • File Operations
  • ▪
  • Files
  • ▪
  • External Operations
  • ▪
  • Cryptography

History

Introduced in 2007 (6.0) | Updated in 2018 (11.3) ▪ 2020 (12.1)

Wolfram Research (2007), FileHash, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FileHash.html (updated 2020).

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), FileHash, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FileHash.html (updated 2020).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "FileHash." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2020. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FileHash.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). FileHash. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FileHash.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_filehash, author="Wolfram Research", title="{FileHash}", year="2020", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FileHash.html}", note=[Accessed: 01-December-2025]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_filehash, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={FileHash}, year={2020}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FileHash.html}, note=[Accessed: 01-December-2025]}

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