IDs

Which ids to use in a DB?

Recommended:

  • CUID2, if being hardcore smarts

  • if you don't need cross-host unique ids or security, use whatever is easiest in your language/framework not autoincrementing

  • try to add Stripe 1-2 letters underscore for readability

Options

  • Autoincrementing Ids

    • easy to guess ids

    • cant generate the id before you write the data, ie distributed systems or clientside generated ids need full round trip to update local id

  • UUID

    • 36 chars, 32 hexadecimal and 4 hyphens

    • don't use uuidv1-v5, uuidv8 is for custom uuids, v6 has MAC address privacy concerns but useable

    • UUIDv7

      • Starts with timestamp, so timesortable and good for db indexing,

  • CUID2 (Security focus)

    • 25 chars, consisting of a mix of timestamp, counter, client fingerprint, and random values

      • contains only lowercase letters and the numbers

    • Shorter, more collision resistant, and more secure/leaks less info then uuid, infeasible to guess next id

  • Nanoid (small focus)

    • 21 chars, use more letters than uuid

    • url safe, 2x as fast as uuid generation, not time ordered, as collision resistant as uuid

  • ULID (Universally Unique Lexicographically Sortable Identifie)

    • Lexicographically sortable.

    • 26 characters

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