Sqids (pronounced "squids") is an open-source library that lets you generate YouTube-looking IDs from numbers. These IDs are short, can be generated from a custom alphabet and are guaranteed to be collision-free. Read more .
This is what they look like:
Ruby code is located at https://github.com/sqids/sqids-ruby
To encode & decode:
sqids = Sqids.new
id = sqids.encode([1, 2, 3]) # '86Rf07'
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]
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]
Read more at https://github.com/sqids/sqids-ruby
If you're looking for the original Hashids Ruby, you can find it here .
The main use of Sqids is purely visual. If you'd like to use IDs instead of numbers in your webapp, Sqids could be a good choice: