title: Converting string to sortable number
body: <p>Is there any way of converting a string value (any content) to a number such that they both sort in the same way? I don't need to be able to convert the number back to a string. In fact it would be an advantage if it were impossible to convert it back.</p>
  
  <p>I don't need to be able to sort any length of string. If a 64-bit long integer is used as the sort-value then I could trim the texts to a value that fits this number range.</p>