# Handlebars Helper Function: sha1

Converts a string to a 160-bit hexadecimal SHA-1 hash.

:::note
SHA-1 is a one-way hash and isn't suitable for securely storing passwords or other sensitive data.
:::

## Availability

This helper is available in the Winter ’27 release of Marketing Cloud Next.

## Syntax

```handlebars
{{sha1 STRING_TO_CONVERT charset=CHARSET}}
```

## Parameters

| Parameter           | Type   | Description                                                                                                               |
| ------------------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `STRING_TO_CONVERT` | String | Required. The string to hash.                                                                                             |
| `charset`           | String | The character set to use. Specify as a named parameter. Accepted values are `UTF-8` and `UTF-16`. The default is `UTF-8`. |

## Return Value

The function returns the 160-bit SHA-1 hash as a hexadecimal string.

## Usage Example

This example hashes a string of text by using UTF-16 character encoding.

```handlebars
{{sha1 "This is a string of text." charset="UTF-16"}}
```

The function returns a hash of the string.

```
1a36453a2f2c1bf17dcc763321e5e35268e5e4c6
```