Making a short URL similar to TinyURL.com

.net asp.net vb.net asp.net-3.5 short-url
ShawnCBerg picture ShawnCBerg · Nov 4, 2009 · Viewed 8.4k times · Source

I'm building a new web app that has a requirement to generate an internal short URL to be used in the future for users to easily get back to a specific page which has a very long URL. My initial thoughts are to store a number in a database and output it in a HEXADECIMAL value to keep it shorter than an integer. TinyURL.com seems to use something other than HEXADECIMAL (multiple case letters mixed with numbers). Is there an easy way to generate something similar what TinyURL does?

Answer

Rubens Farias picture Rubens Farias · Nov 4, 2009

Please, check out this good explanation on subject: Random TinyURL Browser (Updated) .

Important part:

As we have established, there are 62,193,780 possible values for TinyURL's. TinyURL's are generated by a Base 36 hash (36 indicating the number of characters a-z and 0-9, the array of possible values out of which a TinyURL can be constructed), autoincremented by MySQL with an initial value count of zero.

BTW, another SO similar question, through a mathematical view : Creating your own Tinyurl style uid. And here some .NET source code: Base 36 type for .NET (C#)

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