What is the most efficient way to encode an arbitrary GUID into readable ASCII (33-127)?

Question

The standard string representation of GUID takes about 36 characters. Which is very nice, but also really wasteful. I am wondering, how to encode it in the shortest possible

Answer 1

This is an old question, but I had to solve it in order for a system I was working on to be backward compatible.

The exact requirement was for a client-generated identifier that would be written to the database and stored in a 20-character unique column. It never got shown to the user and was not indexed in any way.

Since I couldn't eliminate the requirement, I really wanted to use a Guid (which is statistically unique) and if I could encode it losslessly into 20 characters, then it would be a good solution given the constraints.

Ascii-85 allows you to encode 4 bytes of binary data into 5 bytes of Ascii data. So a 16 byte guid will just fit into 20 Ascii characters using this encoding scheme. A Guid can have 3.1962657931507848761677563491821e+38 discrete values whereas 20 characters of Ascii-85 can have 3.8759531084514355873123178482056e+38 discrete values.

When writing to the database I had some concerns about truncation so no whitespace characters are included in the encoding. I also had issues with collation, which I addressed by excluding lowercase characters from the encoding. Also, it would only ever be passed through a paramaterized command, so any special SQL characters would be escaped automatically.

I've included the C# code to perform Ascii-85 encoding and decoding in case it helps anyone out there. Obviously, depending on your usage you might need to choose a different character set as my constraints made me choose some unusual characters like 'ß' and 'Ø' - but that's the easy part:

/// 

/// This code implements an encoding scheme that uses 85 printable ascii characters 
/// to encode the same volume of information as contained in a Guid.
/// 
/// Ascii-85 can represent 4 binary bytes as 5 Ascii bytes. So a 16 byte Guid can be 
/// represented in 20 Ascii bytes. A Guid can have 
/// 3.1962657931507848761677563491821e+38 discrete values whereas 20 characters of 
/// Ascii-85 can have 3.8759531084514355873123178482056e+38 discrete values.
/// 
/// Lower-case characters are not included in this encoding to avoid collation 
/// issues. 
/// This is a departure from standard Ascii-85 which does include lower case 
/// characters.
/// In addition, no whitespace characters are included as these may be truncated in 
/// the database depending on the storage mechanism - ie VARCHAR vs CHAR.
/// 
internal static class Ascii85
{
    /// 

    /// 85 printable ascii characters with no lower case ones, so database 
    /// collation can't bite us. No ' ' character either so database can't 
    /// truncate it!
    /// Unfortunately, these limitation mean resorting to some strange 
    /// characters like 'Æ' but we won't ever have to type these, so it's ok.
    /// 
    private static readonly char[] kEncodeMap = new[]
    { 
        '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9',  // 10
        'A','B','C','D','E','F','G','H','I','J',  // 20
        'K','L','M','N','O','P','Q','R','S','T',  // 30
        'U','V','W','X','Y','Z','|','}','~','{',  // 40
        '!','"','#','$','%','&','\'','(',')','`', // 50
        '*','+',',','-','.','/','[','\\',']','^', // 60
        ':',';','<','=','>','?','@','_','¼','½',  // 70
        '¾','ß','Ç','Ð','€','«','»','¿','•','Ø',  // 80
        '£','†','‡','§','¥'                       // 85
    };

    /// 

    /// A reverse mapping of the  array for decoding 
    /// purposes.
    /// 
    private static readonly IDictionary kDecodeMap;

    /// 

    /// Initialises the .
    /// 
    static Ascii85()
    {
        kDecodeMap = new Dictionary();

        for (byte i = 0; i < kEncodeMap.Length; i++)
        {
            kDecodeMap.Add(kEncodeMap[i], i);
        }
    }

    /// 

    /// Decodes an Ascii-85 encoded Guid.
    /// 
    /// The Guid encoded using Ascii-85.
    /// A Guid decoded from the parameter.
    public static Guid Decode(string ascii85Encoding)
    { 
        // Ascii-85 can encode 4 bytes of binary data into 5 bytes of Ascii.
        // Since a Guid is 16 bytes long, the Ascii-85 encoding should be 20
        // characters long.
        if(ascii85Encoding.Length != 20)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException(
                "An encoded Guid should be 20 characters long.", 
                "ascii85Encoding");
        }

        // We only support upper case characters.
        ascii85Encoding = ascii85Encoding.ToUpper();

        // Split the string in half and decode each substring separately.
        var higher = ascii85Encoding.Substring(0, 10).AsciiDecode();
        var lower = ascii85Encoding.Substring(10, 10).AsciiDecode();

        // Convert the decoded substrings into an array of 16-bytes.
        var byteArray = new[]
        {
            (byte)((higher & 0xFF00000000000000) >> 56),        
            (byte)((higher & 0x00FF000000000000) >> 48),        
            (byte)((higher & 0x0000FF0000000000) >> 40),        
            (byte)((higher & 0x000000FF00000000) >> 32),        
            (byte)((higher & 0x00000000FF000000) >> 24),        
            (byte)((higher & 0x0000000000FF0000) >> 16),        
            (byte)((higher & 0x000000000000FF00) >> 8),         
            (byte)((higher & 0x00000000000000FF)),  
            (byte)((lower  & 0xFF00000000000000) >> 56),        
            (byte)((lower  & 0x00FF000000000000) >> 48),        
            (byte)((lower  & 0x0000FF0000000000) >> 40),        
            (byte)((lower  & 0x000000FF00000000) >> 32),        
            (byte)((lower  & 0x00000000FF000000) >> 24),        
            (byte)((lower  & 0x0000000000FF0000) >> 16),        
            (byte)((lower  & 0x000000000000FF00) >> 8),         
            (byte)((lower  & 0x00000000000000FF)),  
        };

        return new Guid(byteArray);
    }

    /// 

    /// Encodes binary data into a plaintext Ascii-85 format string.
    /// 
    /// The Guid to encode.
    /// Ascii-85 encoded string
    public static string Encode(Guid guid)
    {
        // Convert the 128-bit Guid into two 64-bit parts.
        var byteArray = guid.ToByteArray();
        var higher = 
            ((UInt64)byteArray[0] << 56) | ((UInt64)byteArray[1] << 48) | 
            ((UInt64)byteArray[2] << 40) | ((UInt64)byteArray[3] << 32) |
            ((UInt64)byteArray[4] << 24) | ((UInt64)byteArray[5] << 16) | 
            ((UInt64)byteArray[6] << 8)  | byteArray[7];

        var lower = 
            ((UInt64)byteArray[ 8] << 56) | ((UInt64)byteArray[ 9] << 48) | 
            ((UInt64)byteArray[10] << 40) | ((UInt64)byteArray[11] << 32) |
            ((UInt64)byteArray[12] << 24) | ((UInt64)byteArray[13] << 16) | 
            ((UInt64)byteArray[14] << 8)  | byteArray[15];

        var encodedStringBuilder = new StringBuilder();

        // Encode each part into an ascii-85 encoded string.
        encodedStringBuilder.AsciiEncode(higher);
        encodedStringBuilder.AsciiEncode(lower);

        return encodedStringBuilder.ToString();
    }

    /// 

    /// Encodes the given integer using Ascii-85.
    /// 
    /// The  to 
    /// append the results to.
    /// The integer to encode.
    private static void AsciiEncode(
        this StringBuilder encodedStringBuilder, UInt64 part)
    {
        // Nb, the most significant digits in our encoded character will 
        // be the right-most characters.
        var charCount = (UInt32)kEncodeMap.Length;

        // Ascii-85 can encode 4 bytes of binary data into 5 bytes of Ascii.
        // Since a UInt64 is 8 bytes long, the Ascii-85 encoding should be 
        // 10 characters long.
        for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            // Get the remainder when dividing by the base.
            var remainder = part % charCount;

            // Divide by the base.
            part /= charCount;

            // Add the appropriate character for the current value (0-84).
            encodedStringBuilder.Append(kEncodeMap[remainder]);
        }
    }

    /// 

    /// Decodes the given string from Ascii-85 to an integer.
    /// 
    /// Decodes a 10 character Ascii-85 
    /// encoded string.
    /// The integer representation of the parameter.
    private static UInt64 AsciiDecode(this string ascii85EncodedString)
    {
        if (ascii85EncodedString.Length != 10)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException(
                "An Ascii-85 encoded Uint64 should be 10 characters long.", 
                "ascii85EncodedString");
        }

        // Nb, the most significant digits in our encoded character 
        // will be the right-most characters.
        var charCount = (UInt32)kEncodeMap.Length;
        UInt64 result = 0;

        // Starting with the right-most (most-significant) character, 
        // iterate through the encoded string and decode.
        for (var i = ascii85EncodedString.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        {
            // Multiply the current decoded value by the base.
            result *= charCount;

            // Add the integer value for that encoded character.
            result += kDecodeMap[ascii85EncodedString[i]];
        }

        return result;
    }
}

Also, here are the unit tests. They aren't as thorough as I'd like, and I don't like the non-determinism of where Guid.NewGuid() is used, but they should get you started:

/// 

/// Tests to verify that the Ascii-85 encoding is functioning as expected.
/// 
[TestClass]
[UsedImplicitly]
public class Ascii85Tests
{
    [TestMethod]
    [Description("Ensure that the Ascii-85 encoding is correct.")]
    [UsedImplicitly]
    public void CanEncodeAndDecodeAGuidUsingAscii85()
    {
        var guidStrings = new[]
        {
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000000000FF",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000FF00",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000FF0000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000FF000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-00FF00000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-FF0000000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-00FF-000000000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-FF00-000000000000",
            "00000000-0000-00FF-0000-000000000000",
            "00000000-0000-FF00-0000-000000000000",
            "00000000-00FF-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "00000000-FF00-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "000000FF-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "0000FF00-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "00FF0000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "FF000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "FF000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000FFFF",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000FFFF0000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-FFFF00000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-FFFF-000000000000",
            "00000000-0000-FFFF-0000-000000000000",
            "00000000-FFFF-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "0000FFFF-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "FFFF0000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-0000-0000FFFFFFFF",
            "00000000-0000-0000-FFFF-FFFF00000000",
            "00000000-FFFF-FFFF-0000-000000000000",
            "FFFFFFFF-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
            "00000000-0000-0000-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF",
            "FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-0000-000000000000",
            "FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF",
            "1000000F-100F-100F-100F-10000000000F"
        };

        foreach (var guidString in guidStrings)
        {
            var guid = new Guid(guidString);
            var encoded = Ascii85.Encode(guid);

            Assert.AreEqual(
                20, 
                encoded.Length, 
                "A guid encoding should not exceed 20 characters.");

            var decoded = Ascii85.Decode(encoded);

            Assert.AreEqual(
                guid, 
                decoded, 
                "The guids are different after being encoded and decoded.");
        }
    }

    [TestMethod]
    [Description(
        "The Ascii-85 encoding is not susceptible to changes in character case.")]
    [UsedImplicitly]
    public void Ascii85IsCaseInsensitive()
    {
        const int kCount = 50;

        for (var i = 0; i < kCount; i++)
        {
            var guid = Guid.NewGuid();

            // The encoding should be all upper case. A reliance 
            // on mixed case will make the generated string 
            // vulnerable to sql collation.
            var encoded = Ascii85.Encode(guid);

            Assert.AreEqual(
                encoded, 
                encoded.ToUpper(), 
                "The Ascii-85 encoding should produce only uppercase characters.");
        }
    }
}

I hope this saves somebody some trouble.

Also, if you find any bugs then let me know ;-)