TalkPHP - View Single Post - need advice for creating personalized urls

Wildhoney · 02-25-2008, 03:27 PM

I've just wrote us a nice function which generates identifiers just like YouTube

! Not just limited to the hexadecimal range of 0 to F.

php Code:

function getIdentifier($iLength, $bUseUpper = true, $bUseLower = true, $bUseNumber = true)
{
    $szId = '';
    $aChars = array();
    
    if($bUseUpper)  $aChars[] = range(65, 90);
    if($bUseLower)  $aChars[] = range(97, 122);
    if($bUseNumber) $aChars[] = range(48, 57);
    
    $iCount = count($aChars);
    
    if($iCount == 0)
    {
        return null;
    }
    
    for($iIndex = 0; $iIndex < $iLength; $iIndex++)
    {
        $iChannel = rand(0, $iCount - 1);
        $szId .= chr($aChars[$iChannel][rand(0, count($aChars[$iChannel]) - 1)]);
    }
    
    return $szId;
}

echo 'ID = ' . getIdentifier(6);

You can even specify which types to include using the 3 arguments after the identifier length. All of which are set to true by default. You'll of course want to add your own checker to see if the returned identifier is unique. I recommend sticking in a do while loop for that -- outside of the function itself.

02-25-2008, 03:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
Wildhoney La Vida es Sueño Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Oldham Posts: 2,280 Thanks: 90	I've just wrote us a nice function which generates identifiers just like YouTube ! Not just limited to the hexadecimal range of 0 to F. php Code: function getIdentifier($iLength, $bUseUpper = true, $bUseLower = true, $bUseNumber = true) { $szId = ''; $aChars = array(); if($bUseUpper) $aChars[] = range(65, 90); if($bUseLower) $aChars[] = range(97, 122); if($bUseNumber) $aChars[] = range(48, 57); $iCount = count($aChars); if($iCount == 0) { return null; } for($iIndex = 0; $iIndex < $iLength; $iIndex++) { $iChannel = rand(0, $iCount - 1); $szId .= chr($aChars[$iChannel][rand(0, count($aChars[$iChannel]) - 1)]); } return $szId; } echo 'ID = ' . getIdentifier(6); You can even specify which types to include using the 3 arguments after the identifier length. All of which are set to `true` by default. You'll of course want to add your own checker to see if the returned identifier is unique. I recommend sticking in a do while loop for that -- outside of the function itself. __________________ The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out.