uniqid() returns a prefixed unique identifier
based on the current time in microseconds. prefix
became optional in PHP 5 but can be useful, for instance, if you generate identifiers
simultaneously on several hosts that might happen to generate the
identifier at the same microsecond. Up until PHP 4.3.1,
prefix
could only be a maximum of 114
characters long.
If the optional more_entropy
parameter is
TRUE, uniqid() will add additional entropy (using
the combined linear congruential generator) at the end of the return
value, which should make the results more unique.
With an empty prefix
, the returned string
will be 13 characters long. If more_entropy
is
TRUE, it will be 23 characters.
Note: The
prefix
parameter is required before PHP 5.
If you need a unique identifier or token and you intend to give out that token to the user via the network (i.e. session cookies), it is recommended that you use something along these lines:
<?php |
This will create a 32 character identifier (a 128 bit hex number) that is extremely difficult to predict.