def METHOD_NAME(self, inputstring: str) -> int:
    "Return a numerical hash of the string."
    return int.from_bytes(
        blake2b(inputstring.encode(), digest_size=8).digest(), "big"
    )
    # old: variable-length version of Python's builtin hash by @sean-public
    # see also Siphash13 in https://peps.python.org/pep-0456/
    # if inputstring == "":
    #    return 0
    # mask = 2**self.length - 1
    # x = ord(inputstring[0]) << 7
    # for c in inputstring:
    #    x = ((x * 1000003) ^ ord(c)) & mask
    # x ^= len(inputstring)
    # if x == -1:
    #    return -2
    # return x