Other Identifiers

Overview

Mint supports several additional identifier types for specialized use cases. Each provides unique characteristics suited to different scenarios.

CUID2

Collision-Resistant Unique Identifier - The successor to CUID, designed for security and horizontal scalability.

Features

Property	Value
Length	24 characters (default)
Sortable	No (secure randomness)
Characters	Lowercase alphanumeric
Collision resistant	Yes

Usage

use Cline\Mint\Mint;

// Generate with default length (24)
$cuid2 = Mint::cuid2()->generate();
echo $cuid2->toString(); // "ckn4l3dw10000vl1d8b0n8b1c"

// Custom length (10-32)
$cuid2 = Mint::cuid2()->length(32)->generate();

When to Use

• Security-sensitive identifiers
• Systems requiring unpredictable IDs
• Horizontal scaling scenarios

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XID

Globally Unique Sortable ID - A 96-bit identifier inspired by MongoDB ObjectID but with a simpler structure.

Features

Property	Value
Length	20 characters
Size	96 bits (12 bytes)
Sortable	Yes
Encoding	Base32 (Crockford)

Structure

Component	Bits	Description
Timestamp	32	Unix seconds
Machine ID	24	Machine identifier
Process ID	16	Process identifier
Counter	24	Incrementing counter

Usage

// Generate
$xid = Mint::xid()->generate();
echo $xid->toString(); // "9m4e2mr0ui3e8a215n4g"

// Parse
$xid = Mint::xid()->parse('9m4e2mr0ui3e8a215n4g');
$timestamp = $xid->getTimestamp();

// Validate
Mint::xid()->isValid($input);

When to Use

• Cross-platform distributed systems
• When you need smaller IDs than UUID (12 vs 16 bytes)
• Go-compatible systems (XID is popular in Go)

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ObjectID

MongoDB-Style Identifier - 96-bit identifiers used natively by MongoDB.

Features

Property	Value
Length	24 characters (hex)
Size	96 bits (12 bytes)
Sortable	Yes
Encoding	Hexadecimal

Structure

Component	Bytes	Description
Timestamp	4	Unix seconds
Machine	3	Machine identifier
Process	2	Process ID
Counter	3	Incrementing counter

Usage

// Generate
$objectId = Mint::objectId()->generate();
echo $objectId->toString(); // "507f1f77bcf86cd799439011"

// Parse
$objectId = Mint::objectId()->parse('507f1f77bcf86cd799439011');
$timestamp = $objectId->getTimestamp();

// Validate
Mint::objectId()->isValid($input);

When to Use

• MongoDB integrations
• Systems that need MongoDB-compatible IDs
• Migrating from/to MongoDB

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PushID

Firebase-Style Identifier - Chronologically sortable identifiers designed for Firebase Realtime Database.

Features

Property	Value
Length	20 characters
Sortable	Yes (chronological)
Characters	URL-safe Base64

Structure

Component	Characters	Description
Timestamp	8	Milliseconds
Randomness	12	Random entropy

Usage

// Generate
$pushId = Mint::pushId()->generate();
echo $pushId->toString(); // "-L7v3WZPJz_H5QfA5jDE"

// Parse
$pushId = Mint::pushId()->parse('-L7v3WZPJz_H5QfA5jDE');
$timestamp = $pushId->getTimestamp();

// Validate
Mint::pushId()->isValid($input);

When to Use

• Firebase Realtime Database integration
• Real-time applications needing chronological ordering
• Systems requiring millisecond-precision timestamps

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Timeflake

128-bit Time-Sortable Identifier - Combines Unix timestamp with random data for sortable, collision-resistant IDs.

Features

Property	Value
Length	26 characters
Size	128 bits
Sortable	Yes
Encoding	Base62

Structure

Component	Bits	Description
Timestamp	48	Milliseconds since epoch
Random	80	Cryptographic randomness

Usage

// Generate
$timeflake = Mint::timeflake()->generate();
echo $timeflake->toString(); // "01FH8W5A1Z2Y3X4W5V6U7T8S9R"

// Parse
$timeflake = Mint::timeflake()->parse('01FH8W5A1Z2Y3X4W5V6U7T8S9R');
$timestamp = $timeflake->getTimestamp();

// Validate
Mint::timeflake()->isValid($input);

When to Use

• Database primary keys requiring chronological sorting
• Alternative to ULID with Base62 encoding
• Systems needing timestamp + randomness

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Comparison Table

Type	Length	Sortable	Timestamp	Use Case
CUID2	24	No	No	Security-focused random IDs
XID	20	Yes	Seconds	Go-compatible, compact
ObjectID	24	Yes	Seconds	MongoDB compatibility
PushID	20	Yes	Milliseconds	Firebase, real-time apps
Timeflake	26	Yes	Milliseconds	General purpose, Base62

Quick Reference

use Cline\Mint\Mint;

// CUID2 - Secure random
$cuid2 = Mint::cuid2()->generate();                    // "ckn4l3dw10000..."
$cuid2 = Mint::cuid2()->length(32)->generate();        // Longer variant

// XID - Compact sortable
$xid = Mint::xid()->generate();                        // "9m4e2mr0ui3e8a215n4g"
$xid = Mint::xid()->parse($string);

// ObjectID - MongoDB style
$objectId = Mint::objectId()->generate();              // "507f1f77bcf86cd799439011"
$objectId = Mint::objectId()->parse($string);

// PushID - Firebase style
$pushId = Mint::pushId()->generate();                  // "-L7v3WZPJz_H5QfA5jDE"
$pushId = Mint::pushId()->parse($string);

// Timeflake - Time-sortable
$timeflake = Mint::timeflake()->generate();            // "01FH8W5A1Z2Y3X4W5V6U7T8S9R"
$timeflake = Mint::timeflake()->parse($string);

API Reference

Common Methods

All conductors support:

Method	Description
generate()	Generate a new identifier
parse(string $value)	Parse an identifier string
isValid(string $value)	Validate format

Common Object Methods

All identifier objects support:

Method	Returns	Description
toString()	string	String representation
getBytes()	string	Binary representation
getTimestamp()	?int	Unix milliseconds (if sortable)
isSortable()	bool	Whether time-ordered

CUID2-Specific

Method	Description
length(int $length)	Set output length (10-32)