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Topic: Calculate short, alphanumeric unique track ID (Read 2406 times) previous topic - next topic
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Calculate short, alphanumeric unique track ID

I'm searching a short way to uniquely identify any given track in my music collection by a short, unique and alphanumeric ID [A-Za-z0-9-]. (Reason: see signature.)
Ideally, I would like it to be human readable, or at least interpretable, so that a track could at be recognised among a short sequence of those IDs. I have come up with the following title formatting string that I use with foo_dynfil to calculate a field %_uid%:

Code: [Select]
$replace(
$if2(%release%,$lower($abbr($ascii(%album artist% %album%),6)))
$right(%date%,2)
$lower($left($abbr($ascii(%title%)),2))
$ifgreater(%totaldiscs%,1,%discnumber%,)%tracknumber%
,-,,?,,'',,",,/,,\,,!,,&,,:,,.,,+,,'(',,')',, ,,@,,'[',,']',,~,,#,,%,,_,,^,,|,,*,,$,)


On my 25000 track database it creates one collision, with an average length of 13.5 characters per song. Has anyone here done something similar already which is a) shorter and/or b) less likely to have collisions?

Calculate short, alphanumeric unique track ID

Reply #1 –
Would this work?

$crc32(%path%)

Calculate short, alphanumeric unique track ID

Reply #2 –
Quote from: ecko on
$crc32(%path%)

While it would certainly reduce collision probability dramatically, this approach fails in the category "human readable". Maybe I shouldn't have called it unique ID, but a DIY catalogue number, derived from basic tags like artist, album, disc-/tracknumber, title.

Calculate short, alphanumeric unique track ID

Reply #3 –
You can make a mix of both methods.
Start with some abbreviations as you do, and append a short CRC checksum (eg track title only).
"Human readable" however, seriously reduces the options, and often doesn't mix well with "short".