as3 convert a string to an arbitrary number

I want to seed a number generator using a string input. What function would be best for simply turning the str开发者_StackOverflow社区ing into a number to do this?

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The best approach is some simple algorithm of your creation, to avoid possible hacks. One method would be to add the value of each character using charCodeAt(),

function generateSeed(input:String):Number {
    var r:Number = 0;
    for (var i:int = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
        r += input.charCodeAt(i);
    }
    return r;
}

Also, depending on the required security, you can also try using MD5 or SHA-1.

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If you're guaranteed that the input will be a number, you can simply cast it to a number from string through Number("4") ie.

var stringInput:String = "15"; // or wherever you're getting the input from
var seed:Number = Number(stringInput);