Replace UUID, nanoid is faster and safer!

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UUID It is one of the most commonly used general identifiers in software development . However , In the past few years , Other competing products challenge its existence .

among ,NanoID yes UUID One of our main competitors .

therefore , In this paper , We will discuss NanoID The function of 、 Its highlights and its limitations , So that we can better understand when to use it .

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understand NanoID And its usage

about JavaScript, Generate UUID or NanoID It's very simple . They all have corresponding NPM Package to help us realize the generation .

All we need to do is run  npm i nanoid  Command to install NanoID NPM library And use it in our project ：

import { nanoid } from 'nanoid';    
model.id = nanoid();

Do you know NanoID Weekly NPM Download more than 1175.4 ten thousand , And it works better than UUID fast 60%？

Besides ,NanoID Than UUID Nearly younger 7 year , And it's GitHub The number of stars is more than UUID many .

The following figure shows the relationship between the two npm Trend comparison , We can see NanoID The rising trend of UUID There is a strong contrast between the flat progress of .

https://www.npmtrends.com/nanoid-vs-uuid

I hope these figures have convinced you to try NanoID.

however , The main difference between the two is simple . It comes down to the alphabet used by the key .

because NanoID Use than UUID The bigger alphabet , So the shorter ID Can be used with longer UUID For the same purpose .

1. NanoID Only 108 The size of a byte

And UUID Different ,NanoID It's smaller 4.5 times , And there's no dependency . Besides , The size limit has been used to reduce the size from another 35% Reduce .

Size reduction directly affects the size of the data . for example , Use NanoID Small and compact objects , It can be used for data transmission and storage . As applications grow , These numbers become obvious .

2. More secure

In most random generators , They use unsafe  Math.random(). however ,NanoID Use  crypto module  and  Web Crypto API, signify NanoID More secure .

Besides ,NanoID stay ID The implementation of the generator uses its own algorithm , be called Unified algorithm , Instead of using “ Random % alphabet ” random % alphabet.

3. It's fast and compact

NanoID Than UUID fast 60%. And UUID In the alphabet 36 The characters are different ,NanoID Only 21 Characters .

0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-

Besides ,NanoID Support 14 Different programming languages , They are ：

C#、C++、Clojure and ClojureScript、Crystal、Dart & Flutter、Deno、Go、Elixir、Haskell、Janet、Java、Nim、Perl、PHP、 With a dictionary Python、Ruby、Rust、Swift

4. Compatibility

It also supports PouchDB、CouchDB WebWorkers、Rollup as well as React and Reach-Native Such as the library .

We can use  npx nanoid  Get unique in the terminal ID. stay JavaScript Use in NanoID The only requirement is to install NodeJS.

Besides , We can still do that Redux toolkit Find NanoID, And use it for other use cases , As shown below ;

import { nanoid } from ‘@reduxjs/toolkit’    
console.log(nanoid()) //‘dgPXxUz_6fWIQBD8XmiSy’

5. Custom letters

NanoID Another existing feature of is that it allows developers to use a custom alphabet . We can change the text or id Size , As shown below ：

import { customAlphabet } from 'nanoid';    
const nanoid = customAlphabet('ABCDEF1234567890', 12);    
model.id = nanoid();

In the example above , I define the custom alphabet as  ABCDEF1234567890, And will Id The size of is defined as 12.

6. There is no third party to rely on

because NanoID Don't rely on any third party , as time goes on , It can become more stable and autonomous .

In the long run , This helps to optimize the package size , And make it less prone to dependency problems .

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Limitations and future priorities

according to StackOverflow Many of the experts in this field , Use NanoID There are no obvious shortcomings or limitations .

Non human readable is something that many developers are doing NanoID The main drawbacks seen in , Because it makes debugging more difficult . however , And UUID comparison ,NanoID Shorter and readable .

in addition , If you use NanoID As the primary key of the table , There will also be problems if you use the same column as the clustered index . This is because NanoID Not continuous .

In the future ……

NanoID Is gradually becoming JavaScript The only most popular id generator , Most developers prefer to choose it rather than UUID.

source ：https://www.npmjs.com/package/nanoid

The above benchmark shows NanoID With other major id Performance compared to the generator .

Using the default alphabet, more than... Can be generated per second 220 Ten thousand unique ID, More than... Can be generated per second using a custom alphabet 180 Ten thousand unique ID.

According to my use UUID and NanoID Experience , Considering its small size 、URL Friendliness 、 Safety and speed , I recommend using... In any future project NanoID instead of UUID.

therefore , I invite you to try... In the next project NanoID, And share your thoughts with others in the comments section .

Original address ：Why is NanoID Replacing UUID

Original author ：Charuka Herath

The translation comes from ： Nuggets translation plan   Permanent link to this article ：https://github.com/xitu/gold-miner/blob/master/article/2021/why-is-nanoid-replacing-uuid.md

translator ： Frost plume Hoarfroster

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