ulid 1.0

Pyhton version of this: https://github.com/alizain/ulid

# Universally Unique Lexicographically Sortable Identifier

## This page was copied from https://github.com/alizain/ulid

## The code was ported to python from https://github.com/alizain/ulid

## Converted to Python (2 and 3) by Massimo Di Pierro

UUID can be suboptimal for many uses-cases because:

- It isn't the most character efficient way of encoding 128 bits of randomness
- The string format itself is apparently based on the original MAC & time version (UUIDv1 from Wikipedia)
- It provides no other information than randomness

Instead, herein is proposed ULID:

- 128-bit compatibility 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)

### Usage

```
from ulid import ulid
print ulid()
```

Below is the current specification of ULID as implemented in this repository. *Note: the binary format has not been implemented.*

```
01AN4Z07BY 79KA1307SR9X4MV3

|----------| |----------------|
Timestamp Randomness
10 chars 16 chars
48bits 80bits
base32 base32
```

### Components

**Timestamp**
- 48 bit integer
- UNIX-time in milliseconds
- Won't run out of space till the year 10895 AD.

**Randomness**
- 80 bits
- Cryptographically secure source of randomness, if possible

### Sorting

The left-most character must be sorted first, and the right-most character sorted last. The default ASCII order is used for sorting.

### Binary Layout and Byte Order

The components are encoded as 16 octets. Each component is encoded with the Most Significant Byte first (network byte order).

```
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 32_bit_uint_time_low |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 16_bit_uint_time_high | 16_bit_uint_random |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 32_bit_uint_random |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| 32_bit_uint_random |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
```

### String Representation

```
ttttttttttrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

where
t is Timestamp
r is Randomness
```

## Test Suite

## Performance