Codeigniter's Encode/Decode function vs. MD5 encryption?

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Hey Codeigniter community!

I'm new to Codeigniter & have read the user guide thoroughly.

While I was reading the user guide I saw that there was a built-in "encryption" that they called "encode" which allows me to later decode, something I cannot do with MD5.

What I want to do is encode a users password, store it in the database, then decode to send in an email both when they register, and for password retrieval if they forgot it.

However my question is this, Is the Codeigniter encode as safe or safer than MD5 or SHA1?
To my knowledge the Codeigniter method is a longer string, however length doesn't necessarily mean safer.

Thanks for the help everyone! -Cheers

p.s. I did google this already with no specific results.

[eluser]solid9[/eluser]
SHA1 is the safest from them.
If you are dealing with password better use SHA1.
Offer the user a link to reset his password rather than decoding the password
and emailing it to the user.

Decoding the password is dangerous it can be intercepted when you send it in the user email.

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
[quote author="solid9" date="1351876185"]SHA1 is the safest from them.
If you are dealing with password better use SHA1.
Offer the user a link to reset his password rather than decoding the password
and emailing it to the user.

Decoding the password is dangerous it can be intercepted when you send it in the user email.


[/quote]

Thank you for the quick reply, I didn't even think of the password reset method *facepalm*.

This community is unmatched, thanks again.