Compact representation of GUID/UUID?

Posted by chakrit on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by chakrit
Published on 2010-05-24T19:30:16Z Indexed on 2010/05/24 19:41 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 540

Filed under:

guid

|

guid-generation

I need to generate a GUID and save it via a string representation. The string representation should be as short as possible as it will be used as part of an already-long URL string.

Right now, instead of using the normal abcd-efgh-... representation, I use the raw bytes generated and base64-encode them instead, which results in a somewhat shorter string.

But is it possible to make it even shorter?

I'm OK with losing some degree of uniqueness and keeping a counter, but scanning all existing keys is not an option. Suggestions?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about guid

MS SQL Database with clustered GUID PKs - switch clustered index or switch to sequential (comb) GUID

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
We have a database in which all the PKs are GUIDs, and most of the PKs are also the clustered index for the table. We know that this is bad (due to the random nature of GUIDs). So, it seems there are basically two options here (short of throwing out GUIDs as PKs altogether, which we cannot do (at… >>> More
Nhibernate Guid with PK MySQL

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello colleagues. I've got a question. I use NHibernate with MySql. At my entities I use Id(PK) for my business-logic usage and Guid(for replication). So my BaseDomain: public class BaseDomain { public virtual int Id { get; set; } public virtual Guid Guid { get; set; } public class… >>> More
Please for efficient query

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I want to have efficient query to get some rows from my table. Here is I think the best presentation of my table. -Somedate is not duplicated - it is date of modifiedon -a,b,c are parent ids, let say countryCode -1,2,3,4 are subparent, let say citycode -guids are id of rows -true, false are values… >>> More
... i just avoid GUID

as seen on SQL Blogcasts - Search for 'SQL Blogcasts'
Our partner was explaining to me that they are using GUID as primary key on all the tables. My immediate reaction was - why? and couple of basic doubts were: - since I can read uniqueidentifier, it does not tell me absolutely anything - if I will use my relational table, i sure will use other columns… >>> More
Convert string to GUID with sscanf

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm trying to convert a string to GUID with sscanf: GUID guid; sscanf( "11111111-2222-3333-4455-667788995511", "%08x-%04x-%04x-%02x%02x-%02x%02x%02x%02x%02x%02x", &guid.Data1, &guid.Data2, &guid.Data3, &guid.Data4[0], &guid.Data4[1], &guid.Data4[2], … >>> More

Related posts about guid-generation

Guid Generation

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
If you need to create a guid you can obviously make use of the Microsoft GuidGen tool, but what if this tool is not available on the system you are using? I recently came across the online guid gen tool which may be able to come to your rescue: To get a new guid pres the "Create New Guid" button… >>> More
Compact representation of GUID/UUID?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I need to generate a GUID and save it via a string representation. The string representation should be as short as possible as it will be used as part of an already-long URL string. Right now, instead of using the normal abcd-efgh-... representation, I use the raw bytes generated and base64-encode… >>> More
Could this cause multiple identical GUIDs?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
As GUID generation is time-dependent, if System.Guid.NewGuid() is called multiple times at the exact same instant on different threads, could it return identical GUIDs? >>> More
It's called College.

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
Today I saw yet another 'GUID vs int as your primary key' article. Like most of the ones I've read this was filled with technical misrepresentations and out-right fallices. Chef's famous line that "There's a time and a place for everything children" applies here. GUIDs have distinct advantages… >>> More
SQL Server database with clustered GUID PKs - switch clustered index or switch to sequential (comb)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
We have a database in which all the PKs are GUIDs, and most of the PKs are also the clustered index for the table. We know that this is bad (due to the random nature of GUIDs). So, it seems there are basically two options here (short of throwing out GUIDs as PKs altogether, which we cannot do (at… >>> More