CUID Generator
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CUID: Collision-resistant Unique Identifiers Explained
A CUID (Collision-resistant Unique Identifier) is an identifier designed to be short, URL-friendly, and highly unique, even in distributed environments. Unlike traditional UUIDs, which are 128-bit random values, CUIDs are optimized for web applications where ID collisions need to be avoided, and human readability is important.
What is a CUID?
CUIDs are designed to solve the problem of generating unique IDs in systems that require both collision resistance and scalability. They are particularly useful in web applications, where creating long, complex UUIDs might be overkill or cause performance issues. CUIDs are shorter and more human-readable, making them easier to work with in URLs and logs.
Why Use CUIDs?
- Collision Resistance: CUIDs are specifically designed to prevent collisions, even across distributed systems. This ensures that no two IDs will be the same, even when generated concurrently across different systems.
- Scalable: CUIDs are efficient and scalable, making them perfect for web applications that generate a large number of IDs across multiple servers.
- Human-Friendly: CUIDs are URL-safe and more human-readable than UUIDs, making them easier to debug, share in URLs, or use in logs.
- Shorter than UUIDs: With a smaller size than typical UUIDs, CUIDs improve performance in databases and APIs by reducing the storage overhead and transfer payload.
How Are CUIDs Structured?
CUIDs follow a specific structure to ensure both uniqueness and readability. A typical CUID looks like this:
cl1h3c7he0000xq7g12q4v0hThe CUID structure includes:
- A timestamp to ensure IDs are unique over time.
- A counter to handle high-frequency generation in a single process.
- A random block to add randomness to the generated ID.
- A client fingerprint to uniquely identify the machine or environment generating the ID.
This combination ensures that CUIDs are both collision-resistant and globally unique.