Sqids (pronounced "squids") is a small library that lets you generate unique IDs from numbers. It's good for link shortening, fast & URL-safe ID generation and decoding back into numbers for quicker database lookups.

Features:

• Encode multiple numbers - generate short IDs from one or several non-negative numbers
• Quick decoding - easily decode IDs back into numbers
• Unique IDs - generate unique IDs by shuffling the alphabet once
• ID padding - provide minimum length to make IDs more uniform
• URL safe - auto-generated IDs do not contain common profanity
• Randomized output - Sequential input provides nonconsecutive IDs
• Many implementations - Support for 40+ programming languages

Good for:

• Generating IDs for public URLs (eg: link shortening)
• Generating IDs for internal systems (eg: event tracking)
• Decoding for quicker database lookups (eg: by primary keys)

Not good for:

• Sensitive data (this is not an encryption library)
• User IDs (can be decoded revealing user count)

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'sqids'

And then execute:

bundle

Or install it via:

gem install sqids

Simple encode & decode:

sqids = Sqids.new
id = sqids.encode([1, 2, 3]) # '86Rf07'
numbers = sqids.decode(id) # [1, 2, 3]

Note 🚧 Because of the algorithm's design, multiple IDs can decode back into the same sequence of numbers. If it's important to your design that IDs are canonical, you have to manually re-encode decoded numbers and check that the generated ID matches.

Enforce a minimum length for IDs:

sqids = Sqids.new(min_length: 10)
id = sqids.encode([1, 2, 3]) # '86Rf07xd4z'
numbers = sqids.decode(id) # [1, 2, 3]

Randomize IDs by providing a custom alphabet:

sqids = Sqids.new(alphabet: 'FxnXM1kBN6cuhsAvjW3Co7l2RePyY8DwaU04Tzt9fHQrqSVKdpimLGIJOgb5ZE')
id = sqids.encode([1, 2, 3]) # 'B4aajs'
numbers = sqids.decode(id) # [1, 2, 3]

Prevent specific words from appearing anywhere in the auto-generated IDs:

sqids = Sqids.new(blocklist: Set.new(%w[86Rf07]))
id = sqids.encode([1, 2, 3]) # 'se8ojk'
numbers = sqids.decode(id) # [1, 2, 3]

MIT