.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

If you dont need to type the string you could use the following:

static class GuidConverter
{
    public static string GuidToString(Guid g)
    {
        var bytes = g.ToByteArray();
        var sb = new StringBuilder();
        for (var j = 0; j < bytes.Length; j++)
        {
            var c = BitConverter.ToChar(bytes, j);
            sb.Append(c);
            j++;
        }
        return sb.ToString();
    }

    public static Guid StringToGuid(string s) 
        => new Guid(s.SelectMany(BitConverter.GetBytes).ToArray());
}

This will convert the Guid to a 8 character String like this:

{b77a49a5-182b-42fa-83a9-824ebd6ab58d} --> "䦥띺ᠫ䋺ꦃ亂檽趵"

{c5f8f7f5-8a7c-4511-b667-8ad36b446617} --> "엸詼䔑架펊䑫ᝦ"