ShortUUID is a lightweight Elixir library that generates short and unique IDs for use in URLs. It provides a solution when you need IDs that are easy to use and understand for users.

Instead of using long and complex UUIDs, ShortUUID converts them into shorter strings using a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, as well as digits. It avoids using similar-looking characters such as 'l', '1', 'I', 'O', and '0'.

Note: It's worth noting that different ShortUUID implementations should work together if they use the same set of characters. However, there is no official standard, so if you plan to use ShortUUID with other libraries, it's a good idea to research and test for compatibility.

Unlike some other libraries, ShortUUID doesn't generate UUIDs itself. Instead, you can input any valid UUID into the ShortUUID.encode/1. To generate UUIDs, you can use libraries like Elixir UUID, Erlang UUID and also Ecto as it can generate version 4 UUIDs.

ShortUUID supports common UUID formats and is case-insensitive. It also supports binary UUIDs returned from DBs like PostgreSQL when the uuid type is used to store the UUID.

Starting with version v3.0.0, this library will follow suit with changes in other language implementations and move the most significant bit of the encoded value to the start. This also means that padding will be applied to the end of the string, not the start This change will restore compatibility with other libraries like shortuuid from v1.0.0 onwards and short-uuid .

Before v3.0.0

iex> "00000001-0001-0001-0001-000000000001" |> ShortUUID.encode
{:ok, "UD6ibhr3V4YXvriP822222"}

After v3.0.0

iex> "00000001-0001-0001-0001-000000000001" |> ShortUUID.encode
{:ok, "222228PirvXY4V3rhbi6DU"}

To migrate ShortUUIDs created using < v3.0.0 reverse them before passing to decode.

# UUID "00000001-0001-0001-0001-000000000001" encoded using v2.1.2 to "UD6ibhr3V4YXvriP822222"
# reversing the encoded string before decode with v3.0.0 will produce the correct result
iex> "UD6ibhr3V4YXvriP822222" |> String.reverse() |> ShortUUID.decode!()
"00000001-0001-0001-0001-000000000001"

Warning: Decoding ShortUUIDs created using a version < v3.0.0 without reversing the string first will not fail but produce an incorrect result

iex> "UD6ibhr3V4YXvriP822222" |> ShortUUID.decode!() === "00000001-0001-0001-0001-000000000001"
false
iex> "UD6ibhr3V4YXvriP822222" |> ShortUUID.decode()
{:ok, "933997ef-eb92-293f-b202-2a879fc84be9"}

Add :shortuuid to your list of dependencies in mix.exs:

def deps do
  [
    {:shortuuid, "~> 3.0"}
  ]
end

iex> "f98e80e7-9923-4173-8408-98f8254912ad" |> ShortUUID.encode
{:ok, "nQtAWSRQ6ByybDtRs7dQwE"}

iex> "f98e80e7-9923-4173-8408-98f8254912ad" |> ShortUUID.encode!
"nQtAWSRQ6ByybDtRs7dQwE"

iex> "nQtAWSRQ6ByybDtRs7dQwE" |> ShortUUID.decode
{:ok, "f98e80e7-9923-4173-8408-98f8254912ad"}

iex> "nQtAWSRQ6ByybDtRs7dQwE" |> ShortUUID.decode!
"f98e80e7-9923-4173-8408-98f8254912ad"

If you would like to use ShortUUID with Ecto schemas try Ecto.ShortUUID.

It provides a custom Ecto type which allows for ShortUUID primary and foreign keys while staying compatible with :binary_key (EctoUUID).

Look up the full documentation at https://hexdocs.pm/shortuuid.

Inspired by shortuuid.

Copyright (c) 2019 Goran Pedić

This work is free. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the MIT License.

See the LICENSE.md file for more details.