SYNOPSIS

use Number::RecordLocator;
my $generator = Number::RecordLocator->new();
my $string = $generator->encode("123456");
# $string = "5RL2";
my $number = $generator->decode($string);

# $number = "123456";

DESCRIPTION

"Number::RecordLocator" encodes integers into a 32 character ``alphabet'' designed to be short and easy to read and pronounce. The encoding maps:

    0 to O
    1 to I
    S to F 
    B to P

With a 32 bit encoding, you can map 33.5 million unique ids into a 5 character code.

This certainly isn't an exact science and I'm not yet 100% sure of the encoding. Feedback is much appreciated.

new

Instantiate a new "Number::RecordLocator" object. Right now, we don't actually store any object-specific data, but in the future, we might.

init

Initializes our integer to character and character to integer mapping tables.

encode INTEGER

Takes an integer. Returns a Record Locator string.

decode STRING

Takes a record locator string and returns an integer. If you pass in a string containing an invalid character, it returns undef.

canonicalize STRING

To compare a Record Locator string with another you can do:

  print "ALWAYS TRUE\n" if $generator->decode("B0") == $generator->decode("PO");

However, this method provides an alternative:

  my $rl_string = $generator->encode(725);
  print "ALWAYS TRUE\n" if $generator->canonicalize("b0") eq $rl_string;
  print "ALWAYS TRUE\n" if $generator->canonicalize("BO") eq $rl_string;
  print "ALWAYS TRUE\n" if $generator->canonicalize("P0") eq $rl_string;
  print "ALWAYS TRUE\n" if $generator->canonicalize("po") eq $rl_string;

This is primarily useful if you store the record locator rather than just the original integer and don't want to have to decode your strings to do comparisons.

Takes a general Record Locator string and returns one with character mappings listed in ``DESCRIPTION'' applied to it. This allows string comparisons to work. This returns "undef" if a non-alphanumeric character is found in the string.

AUTHOR

Jesse Vincent "<[email protected]>"

LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2006, Best Practical Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic.