PostgreSQL: what are purpose of functions uuid_hash(uuid) and uuid_hash_extended(uuid, bigint)

Question

Functions uuid_hash and uuid_hash_extended

Exploring postgresql I discovered 2 functions that looks interesting:

SELECT 
 p.proname ,
 obj_description(p.oid) AS func_desc,
 pg_get_function_arguments(p.oid) AS args_def,
 string_to_array(pg_get_function_identity_arguments(p.oid), ','::text) AS args,
 pg_get_function_result(p.oid) AS rettype 
 FROM 
 pg_catalog.pg_proc P 
 WHERE
 proname ~~ 'uuid_hash%'

proname	func_desc	args_def	args	rettype
uuid_hash	hash	uuid	{uuid}	integer
uuid_hash_extended	hash	uuid, bigint	{uuid, bigint}	bigint

Let's try to use them:

SELECT 
 uuid_hash(uuid_nil()),
 uuid_hash_extended(uuid_nil(), 0),
 uuid_hash(MD5('hello')::uuid),
 uuid_hash_extended(MD5('hello')::uuid, 0);

uuid_hash	uuid_hash_extended	uuid_hash	uuid_hash_extended
1353656403	-6859010066814654381	1620818621	-4122998508949357891

DB Feedle: https://www.db-fiddle.com/f/8CG8HaFn6D2mLKLk3LTwx2/0

Hm. Looks interesting and maybe has posssible uses.

Switching postgresql versions I noticed that uuid_hash_extended appeared in PostgreSQL 11.

Looking into postgresql documentation - I found nothing.

Web search - nothing too.

Question

What is the purpose of those functions?

For what they could be used?

UPDATE

A. The answer https://dba.stackexchange.com/a/295517/82983 is accepted. The source code of function looks very simple

B. Interesting usage found in https://stackoverflow.com/a/66848699/1168212

• user1822: From the names I guess(!) they are used for hash indexes and hash partitioning

Answer 1

They are used for hash index method. As clearly mentioned in source code:

hash index support

It's possible to track dependencies through pg_amproc/pg_opclass/pg_opfamily system catalogs, but this is not as obvious compared to the comment.

Since they are not documented for direct call by user, PostgreSQL developers community may decide to change/replace/remove such functions in new major release.