Short Random Unique alphanumeric keys similar to Youtube IDs, in Swift

Question

Is there a way to create random unique IDs similar to the YouTube IDs in Swift?

I know there are similar answers on this link, but they are for Php. But I want something in Swift.

I have tried using timestamp and UUIDs, but I want an alphanumeric short keys which would be around 4-10 characters so users can easily share with others verbally.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Looking for just a unique string

You can use UUIDs they're pretty cool:

let uuid = NSUUID().UUIDString
print(uuid)

From the  docs

UUIDs (Universally Unique Identifiers), also known as GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifiers) or IIDs (Interface Identifiers), are 128-bit values. UUIDs created by NSUUID conform to RFC 4122 version 4 and are created with random bytes.

Some info about uuid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier

Looking for a more specific length

Try something like this:

func randomStringWithLength(len: Int) -> NSString {

    let letters : NSString = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"

    let randomString : NSMutableString = NSMutableString(capacity: len)

    for _ in 1...len{
        let length = UInt32 (letters.length)
        let rand = arc4random_uniform(length)
        randomString.appendFormat("%C", letters.character(at: Int(rand)))
    }

    return randomString
}

But i'll keep my answer incase someone else stumbles upon this looking for a UUID