Storing UUID as base64 String

Question

I have been experimenting with using UUIDs as database keys. I want to take up the least amount of bytes as possible, while still keeping the UUID representation human read

Answer 1

This is not exactly what you asked for (it isn't Base64), but worth looking at, because of added flexibility: there is a Clojure library that implements a compact 26-char URL-safe representation of UUIDs (https://github.com/tonsky/compact-uuids).

Some highlights:

• Produces strings that are 30% smaller (26 chars vs traditional 36 chars)
• Supports full UUID range (128 bits)
• Encoding-safe (uses only readable characters from ASCII)
• URL/file-name safe
• Lowercase/uppercase safe
• Avoids ambiguous characters (i/I/l/L/1/O/o/0)
• Alphabetical sort on encoded 26-char strings matches default UUID sort order

These are rather nice properties. I've been using this encoding in my applications both for database keys and for user-visible identifiers, and it works very well.