TypeId Pg

An Implementation of TypeId for PostgreSQL

TypeId is a type-safe, globally unique identifier format inspired by Stripe's IDs, designed to be sortable, unique and type-safe.

This implementation of TypeId does some modification to the base TypeId specification by replacing the random UUID part of the TypeId in favor of a sortable ULID

This implement of TypeId consists of two parts a Type prefix and a ULID suffix, separated by an underscore.

• user_01hxyg96mv7ws0e2kw4zcgp3kz
  └──┘ └────────────────────────┘
  Type          ULID
  

• Type Prefix

  • The type prefix is a string of up to 63 characters in lowercase snake_case ASCII (a-z and underscore). It indicates the type of entity the TypeId represents (e.g., user, post, etc.). This helps prevent accidental misuse of IDs and aids in understanding the entity type.

• ULID Suffix

  • Following the underscore is a 26-character string that represents a ULID. This part ensures the TypeId's global uniqueness and this also makes TypeId's sortable.

This implementations TypeId offers a modern and efficient way to handle globally unique identifiers in a type-safe manner, with enhanced sorting capabilities.

Usage of TypeId Pg

Once you've installed the TypeID types and functions from typeid.sql in your Postgres instance, you can use it as follows.

• Generating TypeId

-- Generate a TypeId
SELECT gen_typeid('user') 
-- Result: user_01hxyg96mv7ws0e2kw4zcgp3kz 

• Validating TypeId

-- If TypeId is valid
SELECT check_typeid('user_01hxyg96mv7ws0e2kw4zcgp3kz', 'user') 
-- Result: true

-- If TypeId is invalid
SELECT check_typeid('01hxyg96mv7ws0e2kw4zcgp3kz', 'user')
-- Result: false

• Defining TypeId

-- Creating a users table with TypeId of type `user` as primary key
CREATE TABLE users (
  -- The id is a TypeId with the type of `user`.   
  -- The id also has a default constraint of `gen_typeid` to autogenerated TypeId with the correct type of `user`. 
  -- The id also has a check constraint of `check_typeid` to check if it's a valid TypeId and has the correct type of `user`.
  id TEXT DEFAULT gen_typeid('user') NOT NULL CHECK (check_typeid(id, 'user')) PRIMARY KEY,
  name TEXT NOT NULL,
  email TEXT NOT NULL,
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT now() NOT NULL,
  updated_at TIMESTAMPTZ
);