.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

22 chars, url safe, and retains Guid uniqueness.

// Our url safe, base 64 alphabet:
const string alphabet = "-_0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";

// Sanitized Guid string. Preserve the last two hex chars
var guidStr = "929F7C4D4B2644E1A122A379C02D6345";
var lastTwo = guidStr.Substring(30, 2);

string shortGuid = "";

// Iterate over the ten groups of 3 hex chars: 929 F7C 4D4 B26 44E 1A1 22A 379 C02 D63
for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    var hex = guidStr.Substring(i*3, 3);              // Get the next 3 hex chars
    var x = Convert.ToInt32(hex, 16);                 // Convert to int
    shortGuid += $"{alphabet[x/64]}{alphabet[x%64]}"; // Lookup the two-digit base64 value
}
shortGuid += lastTwo; // Don't forget the last two

Console.WriteLine(shortGuid);

Output:

yDXWhiGAfc4v6EbTK0Px45