How can I hash a string to an int using c++?

Question

I have to write my own hash function. If I wanted to just make the simple hash function that maps each letter in the string to a numerical value (i.e. a=1, b=2, c=3, ...), i

Answer 1

You can make use of the member functions operator[] or at of the string class or iterators to access individual char of a string object without converting it to c-style char array.

To hash a string object to an integer you'll have to access each individual char of the string object which you can do as:

for (i=0; i < str.length(); i++) {
    // use str[i] or str.at(i) to access ith element.
}