What is this?

This is a port of the original JavaScript ULID implementation to Python.

A ULID is a universally unique lexicographically sortable identifier. It is

• 128-bit compatible with UUID
• 1.21e+24 unique ULIDs per millisecond
• Lexicographically sortable!
• Canonically encoded as a 26 character string, as opposed to the 36 character UUID
• Uses Crockford's base32 for better efficiency and readability (5 bits per character)
• Case insensitive
• No special characters (URL safe)

In general the structure of a ULID is as follows:

   01AN4Z07BY      79KA1307SR9X4MV3
  |----------|    |----------------|
   Timestamp          Randomness
     48bits             80bits

For more information have a look at the original specification.

Installation

  $ pip install python-ulid

Basic Usage

Create a new ULID on from the current timestamp

  >>> from ulid import ULID
  >>> ulid = ULID()

Encode in different formats

  >>> str(ulid)
  '01BTGNYV6HRNK8K8VKZASZCFPE'
  >>> ulid.hex
  '015ea15f6cd1c56689a373fab3f63ece'
  >>> int(ulid)
  1820576928786795198723644692628913870
  >>> ulid.bytes
  b'\x01^\xa1_l\xd1\xc5f\x89\xa3s\xfa\xb3\xf6>\xce'

Access timestamp attribute

  >>> ulid.timestamp
  1505945939.153
  >>> ulid.milliseconds
  1505945939153
  >>> ulid.datetime
  datetime.datetime(2017, 9, 20, 22, 18, 59, 153000, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)

Convert to UUID

  >>> ulid.to_uuid()
  UUID('015ea15f-6cd1-c566-89a3-73fab3f63ece')

Other implementations

• ahawker/ulid
• valohai/ulid2
• mdipierro/ulid

Changelog

Version 1.0.0

• Dropped support for Python 2. Only Python 3.6+ is supported.
• Added type annotations
• Added the named constructors ULID.from_datetime, ULID.from_timestamp and from_hex.
• The named constructor ULID.new has been removed. Use one of the specifc named constructors instead. For a new ULID created from the current timestamp use the standard constructor.

  # old
  ulid = ULID.new()
  ulid = ULID.new(time.time())
  ulid = ULID.new(datetime.now())

  # new
  ulid = ULID()
  ulid = ULID.from_timestamp(time.time())
  ulid = ULID.from_datetime(datetime.now())

• The ULID.str and ULID.int methods have been removed in favour of the more Pythonic special dunder-methods. Use str(ulid) and int(ulid) instead.
• Added the property ULID.hex that returns a hex representation of the ULID.

  >>> ULID().hex
  '0171caa5459a8631a6894d072c8550a8'

• Equality checks and ordering now also work with str-instances.
• The package now has no external dependencies.
• The test-coverage has been raised to 100%.