---
alias: user-guide-automation-task-core-calculatechecksum
tags:
- automation tasks
description: "This task calculates a checksum of input data using a specified hash function"
---

# Calculate Checksum

:iot-checksum-lg:{style="font-size:100px"}

The task **Calculate Checksum** calculates the checksum of a value. This is specially necessary when comparing recipe checksums.

![checksum2][checksum2]

## Details

| Fields            | Details                                                                            |
|-------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Scope             | Connect IoT <br> Data Platform <br> Enterprise Integration <br> Factory Automation |
| Workflow          | Data flow <br> Control flow                                                        |
| `IsProtocol` flag | :material-close:{style="color:#EF5350"}                                         |

## Inputs

| Name         | Data Type | Description                                  |
| ------------ | --------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| data         | `any`     | The data message to be encrypted             |
| hashFunction | `String`  | The hash function that will encrypt the data |
| Activate     | `any`     | Activates the task execution                 |

## Outputs

| Name     | Data Type | Description                                                  |
| -------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| checksum | `String`  | The resulting hexadecimal string of the encryption of the data input |
| Success  | `Boolean` | If there was no problem emits a true                         |
| Error    | `Error`   | Error that occurred during the processing of this task       |

## Settings

On the `General` Tab, you have the usual settings and the following options settings:

| Name          | Data Type | Values   | Default  | Description                                                  |
| ------------- | --------- | -------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Hash Function | `enum`    | `Sha256` <br> `SHA1` <br> `MD5` <br> `CRC32`| `Sha256` | The encryption function / algorithm that will be used to encrypt the data |

![Checksum task settings](../images/checksum_task_settings.png)

## Behavior

The task is used to generate checksums. Given a data input and a hash function, the task will encrypt the data input to create a unique value that can later be used to validate if the data has been changed. The checksum will be an unique hexadecimal string.

[checksum2]: ../images/checksum2.png