sequences
Alpha Numeric Sequences
January 25, 2012
This function allows numbers using any given sequence of numbers or characters. The purpose of this code was to allows us to create larger numbers for row ids in the database but using less number of characters, this might create a larger footprint in the database since the size of one character is 8bits, while an 8bit integers gives you 255 numbers.
in this case the allowed numbers/characters give a numbering system in base62.
this was handy when creating URLs that use the row ID so a quick lookup in the database could be made without a conversion of bases. did not have the conversion functions when originally wrote it, but added them here.
