JoinVerse / pyvid

Python Vid Implementation

Globally Unique ID Generator

This project is a python implementation of the Go Lang library found here: https://github.com/JoinVerse/xid Fork from https://github.com/graham/python_xid adapted

Package vid is a globally unique id generator library, ready to be used safely directly in your server code.

• 6-byte value representing the nanoseconds since the Unix epoch,
• 6-byte random value

The binary representation of the id is compatible with Mongo 12 bytes Object IDs. The string representation is using base32 hex (w/o padding) for better space efficiency when stored in that form (20 bytes). The hex variant of base32 is used to retain the sortable property of the id.

Vid doesn't use base64 because case sensitivity and the 2 non alphanum chars may be an issue when transported as a string between various systems. Base36 wasn't retained either because 1/ it's not standard 2/ the resulting size is not predictable (not bit aligned) and 3/ it would not remain sortable. To validate a base32 vid, expect a 20 chars long, all lowercase sequence of a to v letters and 0 to 9 numbers ([0-9a-v]{20}).

UUIDs are 16 bytes (128 bits) and 36 chars as string representation. Twitter Snowflake ids are 8 bytes (64 bits) but require machine/data-center configuration and/or central generator servers. vid stands in between with 12 bytes (96 bits) and a more compact URL-safe string representation (20 chars). No configuration or central generator server is required so it can be used directly in server's code.

Name	Binary Size	String Size	Features
UUID	16 bytes	36 chars	configuration free, not sortable
shortuuid	16 bytes	22 chars	configuration free, not sortable
Snowflake	8 bytes	up to 20 chars	needs machin/DC configuration, needs central server, sortable
MongoID	12 bytes	24 chars	configuration free, sortable
vid	12 bytes	20 chars	configuration free, sortable

Features:

• Size: 12 bytes (96 bits), smaller than UUID, larger than snowflake
• Base32 hex encoded by default (20 chars when transported as printable string, still sortable)
• Non configured, you don't need set a unique machine and/or data center id
• K-ordered
• Embedded time with 6 byte precision

References:

• https://github.com/graham/python_xid

Install

pip install git+git://github.com/JoinVerse/pyvid.git@4d6328d

Usage

from vid import Vid
guid = Vid()

print guid.string()
# Output: 2kbo9q3ma9h2en3o71ig

Get vid embedded info:

guid.time()
guid.counter()

Licenses

All source code is licensed under the MIT License.