How to generate unique ID with node.js

Question

function generate(count) {
    var founded = false,
        _sym = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890',
        str = '';
    while(!founded) {
        for(var i = 0; i < count; i++) {
            str += _sym[parseInt(Math.random() * (_sym.length))];
        }
        base.getID(string, function(err, res) {
            if(!res.length) {
                founded = true; // How to do it?
            }
        });
    }
    return str;
}

How to set a variable value with database query callback? How I can do it?

Answer 1

Install NPM uuid package (sources: https://github.com/kelektiv/node-uuid):

npm install uuid

and use it in your code:

var uuid = require('uuid');

Then create some ids ...

// Generate a v1 (time-based) id
uuid.v1(); // -> '6c84fb90-12c4-11e1-840d-7b25c5ee775a'

// Generate a v4 (random) id
uuid.v4(); // -> '110ec58a-a0f2-4ac4-8393-c866d813b8d1'

---

** UPDATE 3.1.0
The above usage is deprecated, so use this package like this:

const uuidv1 = require('uuid/v1');
uuidv1(); // -> '6c84fb90-12c4-11e1-840d-7b25c5ee775a' 

const uuidv4 = require('uuid/v4');
uuidv4(); // -> '110ec58a-a0f2-4ac4-8393-c866d813b8d1' 

---

** UPDATE 7.x
And now the above usage is deprecated as well, so use this package like this:

const { 
  v1: uuidv1,
  v4: uuidv4,
} = require('uuid');

uuidv1(); // -> '6c84fb90-12c4-11e1-840d-7b25c5ee775a' 
uuidv4(); // -> '110ec58a-a0f2-4ac4-8393-c866d813b8d1' 

Answer 2

The fastest possible way to create random 32-char string in Node is by using native crypto module:

const crypto = require("crypto");

const id = crypto.randomBytes(16).toString("hex");

console.log(id); // => f9b327e70bbcf42494ccb28b2d98e00e

Answer 3

Since Node 14.17.0 you can now use the built-in crypto module to generate UUIDs (UUIDv4 Flavored):

const { randomUUID } = require('crypto'); // Added in: node v14.17.0

console.log(randomUUID());

// '89rct5ac2-8493-49b0-95d8-de843d90e6ca'

For more you can explore https://nodejs.org/api/crypto.html#crypto_crypto_randomuuid_options

Note: crypto.randomUUID is three times faster than uuid. And no need to add extra dependency.

Answer 4

Simple, time based, without dependencies:

(new Date()).getTime().toString(36)

or

Date.now().toString(36)

Output: jzlatihl

---

plus random number (Thanks to @Yaroslav Gaponov's answer)

(new Date()).getTime().toString(36) + Math.random().toString(36).slice(2)

Output jzlavejjperpituute

Answer 5

edit: shortid has been deprecated. The maintainers recommend to use nanoid instead.

---

Another approach is using the shortid package from npm.

It is very easy to use:

var shortid = require('shortid');
console.log(shortid.generate()); // e.g. S1cudXAF

and has some compelling features:

ShortId creates amazingly short non-sequential url-friendly unique ids. Perfect for url shorteners, MongoDB and Redis ids, and any other id users might see.

• By default 7-14 url-friendly characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _-
• Non-sequential so they are not predictable.
• Can generate any number of ids without duplicates, even millions per day.
• Apps can be restarted any number of times without any chance of repeating an id.

Answer 6

It's been some time since I used node.js, but I think I might be able to help.

Firstly, in node, you only have a single thread and are supposed to use callbacks. What will happen with your code, is that base.getID query will get queued up by for execution, but the while loop will continusouly run as a busy loop pointlessly.

You should be able to solve your issue with a callback as follows:

function generate(count, k) {
    var _sym = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890',
    var str = '';

    for(var i = 0; i < count; i++) {
        str += _sym[parseInt(Math.random() * (_sym.length))];
    }
    base.getID(str, function(err, res) {
        if(!res.length) {
          k(str)                   // use the continuation
        } else generate(count, k)  // otherwise, recurse on generate
    });
}

And use it as such

generate(10, function(uniqueId){
  // have a uniqueId
})

I haven't coded any node/js in around 2 years and haven't tested this, but the basic idea should hold – don't use a busy loop, and use callbacks. You might want to have a look at the node async package.

Answer 7

node-uuid is deprecated so please use uuid

npm install uuid --save
// Generate a v1 UUID (time-based) 
const uuidV1 = require('uuid/v1');
uuidV1(); // -> '6c84fb90-12c4-11e1-840d-7b25c5ee775a' 

// Generate a v4 UUID (random) 
const uuidV4 = require('uuid/v4');
uuidV4(); // -> '110ec58a-a0f2-4ac4-8393-c866d813b8d1' 

Npm link

Answer 8

More easy and without addition modules

Math.random().toString(26).slice(2)

Answer 9

to install uuid

npm install --save uuid

uuid is updated and the old import

const uuid= require('uuid/v4');

is not working and we should now use this import

const {v4:uuid} = require('uuid');

and for using it use as a funciton like this

const  createdPlace = {
    id: uuid(),
    title,
    description,
    location:coordinates,
    address,
    creator
  };

Answer 10

If you use node v15.6.0+ us can use crypto.randomUUID([options]). Full documentation here.

Answer 11

If some one needs cryptographic-strong UUID, there is solution for that as well.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/generate-safe-id

npm install generate-safe-id

Why not UUIDs?

Random UUIDs (UUIDv4) do not have enough entropy to be universally unique (ironic, eh?). Random UUIDs have only 122 bits of entropy, which suggests that a duplicate will occur after only 2^61 IDs. Additionally, some UUIDv4 implementations do not use a cryptographically strong random number generator.

This library generates 240-bit IDs using the Node.js crypto RNG, suggesting the first duplicate will occur after generating 2^120 IDs. Based on the current energy production of the human race, this threshold will be impossible to cross for the foreseeable future.

var generateSafeId = require('generate-safe-id');

var id = generateSafeId();
// id == "zVPkWyvgRW-7pSk0iRzEhdnPcnWfMRi-ZcaPxrHA"

Answer 12

My 5 cents:

const crypto = require('crypto');

const generateUuid = () => {
  return [4, 2, 2, 2, 6] // or 8-4-4-4-12 in hex
    .map(group => crypto.randomBytes(group).toString('hex'))
    .join('-');
};

Pono's string lacked hyphens sadly, so it did not conform to the uuid standard, which is what I believe most people came here for.

> generateUuid();
'143c8862-c212-ccf1-e74e-7c9afa78d871'
> generateUuid();
'4d02d4d6-4c0d-ea6b-849a-208b60bfb62e'

Answer 13

i want to use this

class GUID {
    Generate() {
    const hex = "0123456789ABCDEF";
    const model = "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx";
    var str = "";
    for (var i = 0; i < model.length; i++) {
      var rnd = Math.floor(Math.random() * hex.length);
      str += model[i] == "x" ?  hex[rnd] : model[i] ;
    }
    return str.toLowerCase();
  }
}
 
console.log(new GUID().Generate());
console.log(new GUID().Generate());
console.log(new GUID().Generate());
console.log(new GUID().Generate());
console.log(new GUID().Generate());

Answer 14

I am using the following and it is working fine plus without any third-party dependencies.

const {
  randomBytes
} = require('crypto');

const uid = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2) + randomBytes(8).toString('hex') + new Date().getTime();

Answer 15

nanoid achieves exactly the same thing that you want.

Example usage:

const { nanoid } = require("nanoid")

console.log(nanoid())
//=> "n340M4XJjATNzrEl5Qvsh"

Answer 16

The solutions here are old and now deprecated: https://github.com/uuidjs/uuid#deep-requires-now-deprecated

Use this:

npm install uuid

//add these lines to your code
const { v4: uuidv4 } = require('uuid');
var your_uuid = uuidv4();
console.log(your_uuid);

Answer 17

used https://www.npmjs.com/package/uniqid in npm

npm i uniqid

It will always create unique id's based on the current time, process and machine name.

• With the current time the ID's are always unique in a single process.
• With the Process ID the ID's are unique even if called at the same time from multiple processes.
• With the MAC Address the ID's are unique even if called at the same time from multiple machines and processes.

Features:-

• Very fast
• Generates unique id's on multiple processes and machines even if called at the same time.
• Shorter 8 and 12 byte versions with less uniqueness.

Answer 18

Extending from YaroslavGaponov's answer, the simplest implementation is just using Math.random().

Math.random()

Mathematically, the chances of fractions being the same in a real space [0, 1] is theoretically 0. Probability-wise it is approximately close to 0 for a default length of 16 decimals in node.js. And this implementation should also reduce arithmetic overflows as no operations are performed. Also, it is more memory efficient compared to a string as Decimals occupy less memory than strings.

I call this the "Fractional-Unique-ID".

Wrote code to generate 1,000,000 Math.random() numbers and could not find any duplicates (at least for default decimal points of 16). See code below (please provide feedback if any):

random_numbers = [] 
for (i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) { 
   random_numbers.push(Math.random()); 
   //random_numbers.push(Math.random().toFixed(13)) //depends decimals default 16 
} 

if (i === 1000000) { 
   console.log("Before checking duplicate"); 
   console.log(random_numbers.length); 
   console.log("After checking duplicate"); 
   random_set = new Set(random_numbers); // Set removes duplicates
   console.log([...random_set].length); // length is still the same after removing
} 

Answer 19

Generates cryptographically strong pseudorandom data. The size argument is a number indicating the number of bytes to generate.

// Asynchronous
const {
  randomBytes,
} = require('crypto');

randomBytes(256, (err, buf) => {
  if (err) throw err;
  console.log(`${buf.length} bytes of random data: unique random ID ${buf.toString('hex')}`);
});

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