[](https://crates.io/crates/friendly_id)
[](https://docs.rs/friendly_id)
FriendlyID Rust library
==
What is the FriendlyID library?
--
The FriendlyID library converts a given UUID (with 36 characters) to a URL-friendly ID (a "FriendlyID") which is based on Base62 (with a maximum of 22 characters), as in the example below:
UUID Friendly ID
c3587ec5-0976-497f-8374-61e0c2ea3da5 -> 5wbwf6yUxVBcr48AMbz9cb
| |
36 characters 22 characters or less
In addition, this library allows to:
* convert from a FriendlyID back to the original UUID; and
* create a new, random FriendlyID
Why use a FriendlyID?
--
Universal Unique IDs (UUIDs) provide a non-sequential and unique identifier that can be generated separately from the source database. As a result, it is not possible to guess either the previous or next identifier. That's great, but, to achieve this level of security, a UUID is long (128 bits long) and looks ugly (36 alphanumeric characters including four hyphens which are added to make it easier to read the UUID), as in this example: `123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000`.
Such a format is:
* difficult to read (especially if it is part of a URL)
* difficult to remember
* cannot be copied with just two mouse-clicks (you have to select manually the start and end positions)
* can easily become broken across lines when it is copied, pasted, edited, or sent.
Our FriendlyID Java library solves these problems by converting a given UUID using Base62 with alphanumeric characters in the range [0-9A-Za-z] into a FriendlyId which consists of a maximum of 22 characters (but in fact often contains fewer characters).
Supported languages
--
Curently FriendlyID supports also [Java](https://github.com/Devskiller/friendly-id) and [Swift](https://github.com/kdubb/SwiftFriendlyId)
Tools
--
There is available CLI converters
* https://github.com/mariuszs/rust-friendlyid
* https://github.com/kdubb/SwiftFriendlyId#command-line