c# shortening string for url

c# bit.ly url-shortener
nLL picture nLL · Jan 12, 2010 · Viewed 10.3k times · Source

i want to uniquely shorten strings-file ids to use in urls like the ones on bit.ly etc. I can use ids from a db but i want urls to be random like.

what would be the best solution?

site will be a mobile site so i want to it to as short as possible

Answer

Anon. picture Anon. · Jan 12, 2010

You can't "uniquely shorten" arbitrary strings. Pigeonhole principle and all.

What you want to do (and, AFAIK what url-shortening services do) is keep a database of everything submitted, and the short string used. Then you can look it up in the database.

You can generate the short strings by simply incrementing a number and Base64 encoding it for each time.

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