General question about handling data in a table

[abaker77]

I have a standard table; in which one of the fields contains a long descriptor. The descriptor may be any # of characters; there is no pattern at all within the descriptor.
I am trying to determine how I can create a short, unique, identifier for this field, to be used in reports, e.g. Pivot Tables. None of the other fields in the table are candidates for this; I need this identifier to come from the descriptor field.
One (silly) example of an identifier would be to simply extract the 1st character; so there might be 36 unique items, e.g. A-Z, 0-9; but hardly useful for reports.
Is there any way or technique, using either Power Query or a normal Excel function/formula which can produce a more reasonable unique identifier?
Thanks so much.

 

[Anthony47]

In similar circumstances I generate an MD5 hash using the following code:

Function StringToMD5Hex(ByVal s As String) As String
Dim enc As Object
Dim bytes() As Byte
Dim pos As Long
Dim outstr As String

Set enc = CreateObject("System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider")

bytes = StrConv(s, vbFromUnicode)
bytes = enc.ComputeHash_2(bytes)

For pos = LBound(bytes) To UBound(bytes)
   outstr = outstr & LCase(Right("0" & Hex(bytes(pos)), 2))
Next pos

StringToMD5Hex = outstr
Set enc = Nothing
End Function

Then in a new column of the table we may use the formula

=StringToMD5Hex([@Descrizione])

(adapt to your column name)
Copy the formula down, if it don't expand automatically

Now you may use this new column as the unique identifier
Try...

 

[abaker77]

Brilliant and quick response - thank you so much.
Realistically, I don't think any solution would work since the descriptions are so random. Obviously, your 32 char MD5 hash string works as a "unique identifier" but I was thinking more along the lines of something shorter and more user-friendly for reports. Thinking about it now, I don't think there can be a real solution to this.
Thanks anyway !