.NET Short Unique Identifier

Question

I need a unique identifier in .NET (cannot use GUID as it is too long for this case).

Do people think that the algorithm used here is a good candidate or do you have

Answer 1

IDENTITY values should be unique in a database, but you should be aware of the limitations... for example, it makes bulk data inserts basically impossible which will slow you down if you're working with a very large number of records.

You may also be able to use a date/time value. I've seen several databases where they use the date/time to be the PK, and while it's not super clean - it works. If you control the inserts, you can effectively guarantee that the values will be unique in code.