Description

The randomID fn returns a lightweight, pseudo-unique string by taking a random number, converting it to base-36, and slicing out a portion. It prefixes the result with an underscore to avoid starting with a digit.

Warning: This approach is not cryptographically secure and may collide; for security-critical or globally unique IDs, prefer crypto.randomUUID().

Code Byte

export const randomID = () => {
  return '_' + Math.random().toString(36).substring(2, 9);
}

Use cases:

• DOM element IDs: Quickly assign unique id attributes during dynamic element creation.
• React keys: Provide temporary key props in lists when no stable identifier is available.
• Client-side caching: Tag cache entries or in-memory objects.
• Debug labels: Differentiate logs or objects during development.

Example usage:

import { randomID } from './random-id.util';

// Generating a unique key for localStorage entries
const sessionKey = `session_${randomID()}`;
localStorage.setItem(sessionKey, JSON.stringify({
  step: 'onboarding',
  startedAt: new Date().toISOString()
}));