puid 1.0.0

puid for Python

Simple, flexible and efficient generation of probably unique identifiers (puid, aka random strings) of intuitively specified entropy using pre-defined or custom characters (including Unicode).

Installation

pip install puid_py

Overview

puid provides intuitive and efficient generation of random IDs. For the purposes of puid, a random ID is considered a random string used in a context of uniqueness, that is, random IDs are a bunch of random strings that are hopefully unique.

Random string generation can be thought of as a transformation of some random source of entropy into a string representation of randomness. A general purpose random string library used for random IDs should therefore provide user specification for each of the following three key aspects:

1. Entropy source

   What source of randomness is being transformed?

   puid allows easy specification of the function used for source randomness

2. ID characters

   What characters are used in the ID?

   puid provides 16 pre-defined character sets, as well as allows custom characters, including Unicode

3. ID randomness

   What is the resulting “randomness” of the IDs?

   puid allows an intuitive, explicit specification of ID randomness

The project README contains detailed usage and project motivation.

tl;dr

puid is a simple, flexible and efficient random ID generator:

• Ease

  Random ID generator specified in one line of code

• Flexible

  Full control over entropy source, ID characters and amount of ID randomness

• Secure

  Defaults to a secure source of entropy and at least 128 bits of ID entropy

• Efficient

  Maximum use of system entropy

• Compact

  ID strings represent maximum entropy for characters used

• Explicit

  Clear specification of ID generation