short-uuid

Generate and translate standard UUIDs into shorter - or just different - formats and back.

v4.0.1

Major Changes in 4.0.0

• 🛑 short-uuid will now throw an error when provided an alphabet with duplicate characters. Duplicate characters will cause translation errors.
• ℹ️ 4.0.0 is written in modern ECMAScript. It uses features through ES9/ES2018.
• ℹ️ 4.x does not yet include the pre-built version for browsers. If needed, continue to use 3.1.1 in the meantime.
• ℹ️ By default, short-uuid will pad shortened IDs to a consistent length.
  • Padding does not affect translation, and the values are compatible with previous releases.
  • Padding can be disabled with the option consistentLength: false when instantiating a translator. This is consistent with previous versions.

Quick Start

const short = require('short-uuid');

// Quick start with flickrBase58 format
short.generate(); // 73WakrfVbNJBaAmhQtEeDv

Details

short-uuid starts with RFC4122 v4-compliant UUIDs and translates them into other, usually shorter formats. It also provides translators to convert back and forth from RFC compliant UUIDs to the shorter formats.

As of 4.0.0, formats return consistent-length values unless specifically requested. This is done by padding the start with the first ([0]) character in the alphabet. Previous versions can translate padded formats back to UUID.

const short = require('short-uuid');

const translator = short(); // Defaults to flickrBase58
const decimalTranslator = short("0123456789"); // Provide a specific alphabet for translation
const cookieTranslator = short(short.constants.cookieBase90); // Use a constant for translation

// Generate a shortened v4 UUID
translator.new(); // mhvXdrZT4jP5T8vBxuvm75
translator.generate(); // An alias for new.

// Translate UUIDs to and from the shortened format
translator.toUUID(shortId); // a44521d0-0fb8-4ade-8002-3385545c3318
translator.fromUUID(regularUUID); // mhvXdrZT4jP5T8vBxuvm75

// Generate plain UUIDs
// - From the library without creating a translator
short.uuid(); // fd5c084c-ff7c-4651-9a52-37096242d81c
// - Each translator provides the uuid.v4() function, too
translator.uuid(); // 3023b0f5-ec55-4e75-9cd8-104700698052

// See the alphabet used by a translator
translator.alphabet;

// View the constants
short.constants.flickrBase58; // Avoids similar characters (0/O, 1/I/l, etc.)
short.constants.cookieBase90; // Safe for HTTP cookies values for smaller IDs.

Options

short-uuid 4.0.0 adds support for an options object when creating a translator. This will support additional configuration in the future.

const short = require('short-uuid');

// By default shortened values are now padded for consistent length.
// If you want to produce variable lengths, like in 3.1.1
const translator = short(short.constants.flickrBase58, {
  consistentLength: false,
});

// Generate a shortened v4 UUID
translator.new(); // mhvXdrZT4jP5T8vBxuvm75

• consistentLength - Controls padding on shortened values. Default is true.

Support

short-uuid 4.0.0 and later is confirmed to work on Node 8.x and later.

• Pre-compiled browser version is planned for future release.

short-uuid 3.1.1 and lower is confirmed to work on Node 0.10.x and later, and browsers.

Notes

short-uuid provides RFC4122 v4-compliant UUIDs, thanks to uuid.

TypeScript definitions are included, thanks to alexturek.

Recent Release Notes

4.0.0 adds consistent length translation and throws an error if provided an invalid alphabet. 3.1.1 updated dev dependencies which required dropping Node 4.x build test. Browserify distribution version 3.1.0 adds generate() for ease of use. Last version to build on Node 4.x. 3.0.0 updates dependencies, includes a refactor for CodeClimate, and drops Node 0.x builds. 2.3.4 corrects the behavior for UUIDs with uppercase letters. Last version to build on Node 0.x.

Please see Revisions for information on previous versions.