title: Convert MD5 to base62 for URL
body: <p>I have a script to convert to base 62 (A-Za-z0-9) but how do I get a number out of MD5?</p>
  
  <p>I have read in many places that because the number from an MD5 is bigger than php can handle as an integer it will be inaccurate... As I want a short URL anyway and was not planning on using the whole hash, maybe just 8 characters of it....</p>
  
  <p>So my question is how to get part of the number of an MD5 hash?</p>
  
  <p>Also is it a bad idea to use only part of the MD5 hash? </p>