.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

For my local app I'm using this time based approach:

/// 

/// Returns all ticks, milliseconds or seconds since 1970.
/// 
/// 1 tick = 100 nanoseconds
/// 
/// Samples:
/// 
/// Return unit     value decimal           length      value hex       length
/// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
/// ticks           14094017407993061       17          3212786FA068F0  14
/// milliseconds    1409397614940           13          148271D0BC5     11
/// seconds         1409397492              10          5401D2AE        8
///
/// 
public static string TickIdGet(bool getSecondsNotTicks, bool getMillisecondsNotTicks, bool getHexValue)
{
    string id = string.Empty;

    DateTime historicalDate = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0);

    if (getSecondsNotTicks || getMillisecondsNotTicks)
    {
        TimeSpan spanTillNow = DateTime.UtcNow.Subtract(historicalDate);

        if (getSecondsNotTicks)
            id = String.Format("{0:0}", spanTillNow.TotalSeconds);
        else
            id = String.Format("{0:0}", spanTillNow.TotalMilliseconds);
    }
    else
    {
        long ticksTillNow = DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks - historicalDate.Ticks;
        id = ticksTillNow.ToString();
    }

    if (getHexValue)
        id = long.Parse(id).ToString("X");

    return id;
}