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Disclaimer

This page is a WORK IN PROGRESS. Any all things may change at a moments notice.

Contributing

  • Note there are many, many encoding types, a quick sample can be seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary-to-text_encoding#Encoding_standards
    • The table below includes the encoding that have been suggested in various discussions around the web, compared against various concerns also suggested around the web.
    • If you have a suggestion for a new encoding: please open a PR adding the item to the table. If you are adding a
    • If you have a suggestion for a new concern: please open a PR adding the item to the table after opening a discussion thread for linking.

Summary of Concerns and Tradeoffs

  • Many want alternate UUID encodings for different reasons.

    • In order to objectively evaluate options, this table has been made to help analyze which properties various solutions have and don't have.
    • Not all concerns are equally important, but all concerns are important enough to be considered when weighing options.

  • Where possible alt Encoding should attempt to use the starting example UUID, in Unsigned Integer or Binary from RFC9562, Section 4

    • Figure 2, Base02: 11111000000111010100111110101110011111011110110000010001110100001010011101100101000000001010000011001001000111100110101111110110
    • Figure 3, Base10: 329800735698586629295641978511506172918
    • This ensures we have an accurate comparison of the output encoding from the same starting point.
Encoding Variant Example Encoding Output Alphabet Text Length (Max Chars) Padding Checksums Special Characters Character Exclusions Case Sensitive Sorts the Same as Binary URL Path URL Query Param DNS Record Double Click to Copy Supports 128+ bit Inputs Parse(uuid_text) Updatable Makes Everyone Happy SPEC Reference Notes
Base16 UUID f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6 0123456789ABCDEF- 36 N N Y N N Y Y Y Y N Y Y N RFC9562 Default String Format
Base16 Base f81d4fae7dec11d0a76500a0c91e6bf6 0123456789ABCDEF 32 N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N RFC9562
Base32 Base 7AOU7LT55QI5BJ3FACQMSHTL6Y ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567 26 Y N N N N N N N Y N Y Y N RFC4648
Base32 Hex V0EKVBJTTG8T19R502GCI7JBUO 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV 26 Y N N N N Y Y Y Y N Y Y N RFC4648
Base32 Crockford Z0EMZBKXXG8X19V502GCJ7KBYR 0123456789ABCDEFGHJKMNPQRSTVWXYZ 26 N Y N Y N* Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N CrB32 Encoding uppercase, decoding can use upper/lower.
Base32 NCName bzjv6jsglv4pkfkyaarninsfbl^ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567 26 Y N N Y N N Y Y Y Y N* Y N NCName May support 128+? Also, example from RFC Draft not RFC9562
Base32 z-base 9yqw9mu77oe7bj5fynoc18um6a ybndrfg8ejkmcpqxot1uwisza345h769 26 N N N Y N N Y Y Y Y Y Y N z-base-32
Base32 geohash z0fnzcmxxh8x19v502hdk7mcys 0123456789bcdefghjkmnpqrstuvwxyz 26 N N N Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N py-geohash Trailing 0's removed?
Base36 LiosK EOSWZOLG3BSX0ZN8OTQ1P8OOM^ 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 25? N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N LIOSK Not sure if there is a better SPEC.
Base48 Fabio jxzgygpFeeYSEhzAZEtNEtY^ ABCDEFGHJKLMNOPQRSTVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstvwxyz 23? N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N fabiolimace Not sure if there is a better SPEC.
Base52 Fabio VPfYDYZXVvyfMRZxQGSmTka^ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 23 N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N fabiolimace Not sure if there is a better SPEC. Example is not from RFC9562
Base58 BTC Xe22UfxT3rxcKJEAfL5373 123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz 22 N Y N Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y N BTC
Base62 IEEE 7YBUWgZR1mKSqGyj9tVViw 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 22 Y N N N* Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N base62spec base62wiki cites IEEE doc. Excludes numeric because not required.
Base64 Base +B1Prn3sEdCnZQCgyR5r9g ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/ 22 Y N Y N Y N N N N N Y Y N RFC4648
Base64 URL Safe -B1Prn3sEdCnZQCgyR5r9g ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-_ 22 Y N Y N Y N Y Y N N Y Y N RFC4648
Base64 NCName BymvkyMuvHqKrAARahsihL^ ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-_ 22 Y N Y N Y N Y Y Y Y N* Y N NCName May support 128+? Also, example from RFC Draft not RFC9562
PLACE HOLDER `` `` xx X X X X X X X X X X X X N [][] Placeholder for new Values 
^ Need Verified, either not from starting point of RFC9562 Fig 2/3 or just need peer review on conversion
? Needs another individual to confirm accuracy
* See Notes at the end.

Number of New Alphabets

  • Discussion Thread
  • This is the number of alphabets or distinct encodings that have to be implemented to support the indicated solution.
  • More alphabets are not necessarily bad, but consider this in relation to the work required by library maintainers that will have to update their libraries to support the new specification.

Encoding Specific Items

Text Length (Max Chars)

  • Discussion Thread
  • Indicates the maximum number of characters that could be output for a given UUID.
  • To gleam potential the Maximum output of a given encoding use UUID MAX RFC9562, Section 5.10 as the starting point:
    • Binary: 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
    • Unsigned Integer: 340282366920938463463374607431768211455

Padding

  • Discussion Thread
  • Generally if padding is part of the output the maximum length of the output will be fixed
  • Padding characters are usually = but may be different in different encoding languages
  • Depending on the algorithm padding may be omitted from the output. This of course will change the Text Length (Max Chars).

Checksums

  • Discussion Thread
  • Some encoding types can leverage checksum characters to help ensure encode/decode is working as expected.
  • This character could be = same as the pad character or another entirely.
  • This will also add length to the new encoding changing the Text Length (Max Chars).

Special Characters

  • Discussion Thread
  • Does the encoding utilize special characters other than numbers/letters.
  • Usually as the encoding base goes up, so does the items in the alphabet
  • Note: This excludes padding/checksums which are discussed separately.

Character Exclusions

  • Discussion Thread
  • Some libraries exclude specific alphabetic characters: Oo, Ii and Ll, sometimes Uu?
  • These characters help human readability since I/l can be confused with 1 and O can be confused with 0 while the U character can create accidental obscenities in the encoding.
    • Also scenarios where "v==u" and "2==z" as seen in z-base-32
  • While usually specific to the alphabetic characters, there may be gaps in the numeric characters available too.
  • Note that qualifier is "Y" if an encoding goes out of their way to exclude a character. e.g Base32hex does not use the full A-Z alphabet because it is not required, not for some other specific purpose as noted above.

Case Sensitive

  • Discussion Thread
  • Fore example: Does A == a?
  • This impacts things like sortability.
  • Generally, anything above Base32 includes Uppercase and Lowercase as distinct encoding characters.

Sorts the Same as Binary

  • Discussion Thread
  • This indicates if values encoded with this encoding sort the same as the raw bytes they represent.
  • This typically depends on the alphabet used, and not all alphabets have this property.
  • Specifically, how are symbols/special characters treated? Do they sort first (before 0) or last (after Z)

Misc App Considerations.

URL Path

  • Discussion Thread
  • This indicates if a value can be used in the path part of a URL without requiring any URL Percent Encoding.
  • This specifically means values must not contain /, although other considerations may also apply.

URL Query Param

  • Discussion Thread
  • This indicates if a value can be used in the query string of a URL without requiring any URL Percent Encoding.
  • This specifically means values must not contain any of ?=/+, although other considerations may also apply.

DNS Record

HTML/XML

  • HTML ID can't start with a number
  • XML Namespaces cannot start with a letter or underscore (could use UUID URN instead)
  • "Virtually every programming language likewise requires identifiers such as variables and function names to start with a letter or underscore, and very few admit hyphens." NCName

Other Considerations

Double Click to Copy

  • Discussion Thread
  • Do we need to "double click" to select the entire encoding or "triple click" to select the entire encoding?

Supports 128+ bit Inputs

  • Discussion Thread
  • Indicates this encoding is free of any known conflicts from using an input value that is 128+ bits
  • This takes into the account that, at some point, a UUID format of 128+ bits could exist and helps future proof the alternate encoding.

Parse(uuid_text) Updatable

  • Discussion Thread
  • This indicates if existing generic Parse(uuid_text) functions in UUID libraries can be updated in a reliable and unambiguous way to parse the new format.
  • This specifically means that if this value is Y, then Parse can unambiguously determine just by looking at the input if it is the old UUID hex and dash string format, or the new input (including any and all variations of it).

Makes Everyone Happy

  • Discussion Thread
  • This is of course a light-hearted reminder that nobody is going to get everything they want.
  • The objective is to determine, to the extent possible, which path is most useful to the most number of important use cases to the most people.

TIP

The table above can be quite large, this can help fit more data on one page (or one ultra-wide monitor)

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  1. Sortable Markdown Tables can be enabled here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42843288/is-there-any-way-to-make-markdown-tables-sortable

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New UUID Encoding Techniques

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