How would I transform a string attribute into a float to use in random.

I am trying to use the name attribute produce by the assemble SOP which is string to randomly give color to each primitive.

but rand (@name) will not work… I assume because it requires a float.

Any ideas?

could be worth checking out the atoi vex function

http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini15.0/vex/functions/atoi [sidefx.com]

thank you very much @glassman3d….
I solve it with atoi here:
int num_name = atoi (strip (@name,“name”));
@Cd = set (rand (num_name),rand (num_name),rand (num_name));