PostgreSQL:converte a string hexadecimal de um número muito grande para um NUMERIC

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION hex_to_int(hexval varchar) RETURNS numeric AS $$
DECLARE
  result  NUMERIC;
  i integer;
  len integer;
  hexchar varchar;
BEGIN

  result := 0;
  len := length(hexval);

  for i in 1..len loop
    hexchar := substr(hexval, len - i + 1, 1);
    result := result + round(16 ^ (i - 1)::dec * case
      when hexchar between '0' and '9' then cast (hexchar as int)
      when upper (hexchar) between 'A' and 'F' then ascii(upper(hexchar)) - 55
    end);
  end loop;

 RETURN result;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' IMMUTABLE STRICT;

select hex_to_int('12AE34F');  -- returns 19587919

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION hex_to_int_perl(varchar)
  RETURNS numeric AS
$BODY$
  my ($hex) = @_;
  return sprintf "%d", hex($hex);
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plperl VOLATILE
  COST 100;

select hex_to_int_perl('12AE34F');  -- returns 19587919