(PHP 4, PHP 5)
uniqid — Generate a unique ID
$prefix = ""
[, bool $more_entropy = false
]] )Gets a prefixed unique identifier based on the current time in microseconds.
This function does not create random nor unpredictable strings. This function must not be used for security purposes. Use a cryptographically secure random function/generator and cryptographically secure hash functions to create unpredictable secure IDs.
prefixCan be useful, for instance, if you generate identifiers simultaneously on several hosts that might happen to generate the identifier at the same microsecond.
With an empty prefix, the returned string will
be 13 characters long. If more_entropy is
TRUE, it will be 23 characters.
more_entropy
If set to TRUE, uniqid() will add additional
entropy (using the combined linear congruential generator) at the end
of the return value, which increases the likelihood that the result
will be unique.
Returns the unique identifier, as a string.
Example #1 uniqid() Example
<?php
/* A uniqid, like: 4b3403665fea6 */
printf("uniqid(): %s\r\n", uniqid());
/* We can also prefix the uniqid, this the same as
* doing:
*
* $uniqid = $prefix . uniqid();
* $uniqid = uniqid($prefix);
*/
printf("uniqid('php_'): %s\r\n", uniqid('php_'));
/* We can also activate the more_entropy parameter, which is
* required on some systems, like Cygwin. This makes uniqid()
* produce a value like: 4b340550242239.64159797
*/
printf("uniqid('', true): %s\r\n", uniqid('', true));
?>
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.0.0 |
The prefix parameter was made optional.
|
| 4.3.1 |
The limit of 114 characters long for prefix
was raised.
|
This function does not generate cryptographically secure tokens, in fact without being passed any additional parameters the return value is little different from microtime(). If you need to generate cryptographically secure tokens use openssl_random_pseudo_bytes().
Note:
Under Cygwin, the
more_entropymust be set toTRUEfor this function to work.