Hashids is small PHP library to generate YouTube-like ids from numbers. Use it when you don't want to expose your database ids to the user: http://hashids.org/php

Getting started

Require this package, with Composer, in the root directory of your project.

$ composer require hashids/hashids

Then you can import the class into your application:

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids();

$hashids->encode(1);

Note: Hashids requires either the BC Math or GMP extension in order to work.

Quick Example

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids();

$id = $hashids->encode(1, 2, 3); // o2fXhV
$numbers = $hashids->decode($id); // [1, 2, 3]

More Options

A few more ways to pass to encode():

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids();

$hashids->encode(1, 2, 3); // o2fXhV
$hashids->encode([1, 2, 3]); // o2fXhV
$hashids->encode('1', '2', '3'); // o2fXhV
$hashids->encode(['1', '2', '3']); // o2fXhV

Make your ids unique:

Pass a project name to make your ids unique:

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids('My Project');
$hashids->encode(1, 2, 3); // Z4UrtW

$hashids = new Hashids('My Other Project');
$hashids->encode(1, 2, 3); // gPUasb

Use padding to make your ids longer:

Note that ids are only padded to fit at least a certain length. It doesn't mean that your ids will be exactly that length.

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids(); // no padding
$hashids->encode(1); // jR

$hashids = new Hashids('', 10); // pad to length 10
$hashids->encode(1); // VolejRejNm

Pass a custom alphabet:

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids('', 0, 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'); // all lowercase
$hashids->encode(1, 2, 3); // mdfphx

Encode hex instead of numbers:

Useful if you want to encode Mongo's ObjectIds. Note that there is no limit on how large of a hex number you can pass (it does not have to be Mongo's ObjectId).

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids();

$id = $hashids->encodeHex('507f1f77bcf86cd799439011'); // y42LW46J9luq3Xq9XMly
$hex = $hashids->decodeHex($id); // 507f1f77bcf86cd799439011

Pitfalls

1. When decoding, output is always an array of numbers (even if you encode only one number):

   use Hashids\Hashids;
   
   $hashids = new Hashids();
   
   $id = $hashids->encode(1);
   
   $hashids->decode($id); // [1]

2. Encoding negative numbers is not supported.

3. If you pass bogus input to encode(), an empty string will be returned:

   use Hashids\Hashids;
   
   $hashids = new Hashids();
   
   $id = $hashids->encode('123a');
   
   $id === ''; // true

4. Do not use this library as a security tool and do not encode sensitive data. This is not an encryption library.

Randomness

The primary purpose of Hashids is to obfuscate ids. It's not meant or tested to be used as a security or compression tool. Having said that, this algorithm does try to make these ids random and unpredictable:

No repeating patterns showing there are 3 identical numbers in the id:

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids();

$hashids->encode(5, 5, 5); // A6t1tQ

Same with incremented numbers:

use Hashids\Hashids;

$hashids = new Hashids();

$hashids->encode(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10); // wpfLh9iwsqt0uyCEFjHM

$hashids->encode(1); // jR
$hashids->encode(2); // k5
$hashids->encode(3); // l5
$hashids->encode(4); // mO
$hashids->encode(5); // nR

Curses! #$%@

This code was written with the intent of placing created ids in visible places, like the URL. Therefore, the algorithm tries to avoid generating most common English curse words by generating ids that never have the following letters next to each other:

c, f, h, i, s, t, u

License

MIT License. See the LICENSE file. You can use Hashids in open source projects and commercial products. Don't break the Internet. Kthxbye.