Ananoid

This library provides nano identifiers, an alternative to UUIDs (inspired by https://github.com/ai/nanoid).

Overview

A nano identifier, or nanoid, is a randomly generated opaque value, suitable for uniquely identifying database entries, file names, et cetera. Ananoid (pronounced: "an-an-oyd") is a library for generating such identifiers. It uses cryptographically secure random number generation, and has no dependencies beyond the .NET 8 base class libraries. It has both a high-level API, and a simpler, more memory-efficient, low-level API.

Installation via NuGet

The latest version of this package can be installed from NuGet via the following command:

> dotnet add package pblasucci.ananoid --version 2.0.0

A simple example

The most common use-case for this library is to generate an new identifier, based on sensible defaults (21 random characters from a URL-safe alphabet consisting of: letters, numbers, underscore, and/or hyphen). A struct representing such an identifier can be generated as follows:

open pblasucci.Ananoid

// NOTE type annotations only for demonstration's sake
let nanoId : NanoId = NanoId.ofDefaults ()

printfn $"nano identifier as string: %s{string nanoId}"
printfn $"nano identifier length: %i{nanoId.Length}"

Imports pblasucci.Ananoid
Imports System.Console

' NOTE type annotations only for demonstration's sake
Dim nanoId As NanoId = NanoId.NewId()

WriteLine($"nano identifier as string: {nanoId}")
WriteLine($"nano identifier length: {nanoId.Length}")

using pblasucci.Ananoid;
using static System.Console;

// NOTE type annotations only for demonstration's sake
NanoId nanoId = NanoId.NewId();

WriteLine($"nano identifier as string: {nanoId}");
WriteLine($"nano identifier length: {nanoId.Length}");

> dotnet fsi ~/scratches/index.fsx

nano identifier as string: KJzJ41XFLlV-eh-nfxCnA
nano identifier length: 21

Further reading

• How-To: Customize NanoId Creation
• Utilities: Complexity Calculator
• Performance: Select Highlights

Copyright

The library is available under the Mozilla Public License, Version 2.0. For more information see the project's License file.