How do I create a URL shortener?

Question

I want to create a URL shortener service where you can write a long URL into an input field and the service shortens the URL to \"http://www.example.org/abcdef\

Answer 1

Did you omit O, 0, and i on purpose?

I just created a PHP class based on Ryan's solution.

 Short link: ' . $shorty->encode(1000);
    echo '
 Decoded Short Link: ' . $shorty->decode($shorty->encode(1000));


    /**
     * A nice shorting class based on Ryan Charmley's suggestion see the link on Stack Overflow below.
     * @author Svetoslav Marinov (Slavi) | http://WebWeb.ca
     * @see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/742013/how-to-code-a-url-shortener/10386945#10386945
     */
    class App_Shorty {
        /**
         * Explicitly omitted: i, o, 1, 0 because they are confusing. Also use only lowercase ... as
         * dictating this over the phone might be tough.
         * @var string
         */
        private $dictionary = "abcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz23456789";
        private $dictionary_array = array();

        public function __construct() {
            $this->dictionary_array = str_split($this->dictionary);
        }

        /**
         * Gets ID and converts it into a string.
         * @param int $id
         */
        public function encode($id) {
            $str_id = '';
            $base = count($this->dictionary_array);

            while ($id > 0) {
                $rem = $id % $base;
                $id = ($id - $rem) / $base;
                $str_id .= $this->dictionary_array[$rem];
            }

            return $str_id;
        }

        /**
         * Converts /abc into an integer ID
         * @param string
         * @return int $id
         */
        public function decode($str_id) {
            $id = 0;
            $id_ar = str_split($str_id);
            $base = count($this->dictionary_array);

            for ($i = count($id_ar); $i > 0; $i--) {
                $id += array_search($id_ar[$i - 1], $this->dictionary_array) * pow($base, $i - 1);
            }
            return $id;
        }
    }
?>