How to make string of numbers shorter?

[Krakatioison]

My sites navigation is like this:

http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000

, depending on the variable "n" (which is always a number), it will take me
anywhere on the site... this number is always changing as I have hundreds of
thousand of pages of text on my site.

Problem:
- in my opinion this just not only look weird, but the variable "n" (number)
is too long.

I need a way to somehow express this number in shorter form. Some encoding
and decoding way to express this number as something shorter.
For example: 000000000040900000 could become something like : AhD7
so the link: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000
would look like: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=AhD7

You know what I mean.

So, I tried to think about it, and I played with the idea to use of gzencode
or gzcompress. Tried it, but these will generate the short code full of
characters out of normal ascii, spaces and so.... I can't use that, then my
site won't be search engine friendly.

Please, do you have any suggestions?
Or some short encoding decoding script? Your script can be forever part of
my site.

Joe

[Michael Fesser]

.oO(Krakatioison)

I need a way to somehow express this number in shorter form. Some encoding
and decoding way to express this number as something shorter.
For example: 000000000040900000 could become something like : AhD7
so the link: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000
would look like: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=AhD7

If n is a real number (so that leading zeros don't matter), then you
could try base_convert:

print base_convert('000000000040900000', 10, 36); // ouput: ocmn4
print base_convert('ocmn4', 36, 10); // output: 40900000

http://www.php.net/base_convert

HTH
Micha

[Joep]

base64? (without the leading zeroes of course)

"Michael Fesser" <ne*****@gmx.net> wrote in message
news:gn********************************@4ax.com...

.oO(Krakatioison)

I need a way to somehow express this number in shorter form. Some encoding
and decoding way to express this number as something shorter.
For example: 000000000040900000 could become something like : AhD7
so the link: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000
would look like: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=AhD7

If n is a real number (so that leading zeros don't matter), then you
could try base_convert:

print base_convert('000000000040900000', 10, 36); // ouput: ocmn4
print base_convert('ocmn4', 36, 10); // output: 40900000

http://www.php.net/base_convert

HTH
Micha

[Krakatioison]

Problem is that I need those leading zeros. It will just not work without
them.
Hm... But great Idea. Thanks a lot.
Any better idea? Which would never cut my leading zeros?

Joe


"Joep" <St***@DeStoep.nl> wrote in message
news:41***********************@news.xs4all.nl...

base64? (without the leading zeroes of course)

"Michael Fesser" <ne*****@gmx.net> wrote in message
news:gn********************************@4ax.com...

.oO(Krakatioison)

I need a way to somehow express this number in shorter form. Some
encoding
and decoding way to express this number as something shorter.
For example: 000000000040900000 could become something like : AhD7
so the link: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000
would look like: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=AhD7

If n is a real number (so that leading zeros don't matter), then you
could try base_convert:

print base_convert('000000000040900000', 10, 36); // ouput: ocmn4
print base_convert('ocmn4', 36, 10); // output: 40900000

http://www.php.net/base_convert

HTH
Micha

[Krakatioison]

So I played with your idea a bit and wrote this script:

<?

$str= '1000000000040900000';

echo "Original string:".$str."<br>";

$encoded = base_convert($str, 10, 36); //

echo "Encoded string:".$encoded."<br>";

$decoded = base_convert($encoded, 36, 10);

echo "Decoded string:".$decoded."<br>";

?>

Result from the screen looks like this:

Original string: 1000000000040900000
Encoded string: 7lieey0lh7k0
Decoded string: 1000000000040900008

My idea was to add number 1 to the from which I would just cut off. But it's
not working... Decoded string has number 8 at the end. Not 0, as original
had.

Geez... what is happening, am I going blind?

Joe

[Ethan T]

Krakatioison <kl****@sssbbbccc.com> wrote:

My idea was to add number 1 to the from which I would just cut off.
But it's not working... Decoded string has number 8 at the end. Not
0, as original had.
Geez... what is happening, am I going blind?

The docs for that function (base_convert) mention a loss of precision when
using large numbers, and those are definitely large numbers. That's probably
why the 8 is appearing.

--
eth'nT

[Michael Fesser]

.oO(Krakatioison)

Result from the screen looks like this:

Original string: 1000000000040900000
Encoded string: 7lieey0lh7k0
Decoded string: 1000000000040900008

My idea was to add number 1 to the from which I would just cut off. But it's
not working... Decoded string has number 8 at the end. Not 0, as original
had.

Geez... what is happening, am I going blind?

Nope, it's probably because of the way base_convert() works.
My fault, I should have read the warning on the manual page:

"base_convert() may lose precision on large numbers due to properties
related to the internal "double" or "float" type used."

A while ago I wrote a function for calulating permutations, it is also
usable for converting from the decimal system to any other base. I have
to check if it can be adjusted to work with such large numbers ...

Maybe there's another and better way.

Micha

[Krakatioison]

Micha, Ethan,

I thought there must be something like it. But I wasn't sure.
So now I am really puzzled. What would be a best way to deal with this
problem?
I was wondering about using dechex and hexdec.... but that is using
alphabeth only till it gets to F, so as a solution it wouldn't be the best
possible.

Any other ideas?

Joe

[Michael Fesser]

.oO(Krakatioison)

I thought there must be something like it. But I wasn't sure.
So now I am really puzzled. What would be a best way to deal with this
problem?
I was wondering about using dechex and hexdec.... but that is using
alphabeth only till it gets to F, so as a solution it wouldn't be the best
possible.

A quick 'n dirty hack, using the BCMath extension (should be compiled-in
by default) for converting any (really big) number from base 10 to any
base you like and back:

function encode($number, $alphabet) {
$base = strlen($alphabet);
$result = '';
while (bccomp($number, 0) == 1) {
$result = $alphabet{bcmod($number, $base)}.$result;
$number = bcdiv($number, $base, 0);
}
return $result;
}

function decode($number, $alphabet) {
$base = strlen($alphabet);
$alphabet = array_flip(str_split($alphabet));
$c = strlen($number)-1;
$result = 0;
for ($i = 0; $i <= $c; $i++) {
$temp = bcmul($alphabet[$number{$i}], bcpow($base, $c-$i));
$result = bcadd($result, $temp);
}
return $result;
}
The str_split() function is PHP5, if you don't have it you can use this
one instead:

function str_split($string) {
return preg_split('##', $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
}
Test results:

Alphabet: 01
Original string: 1000000000040900000
Encoded string: 11011110000010110110101100111010100111010100000101 0110100000
Decoded string: 1000000000040900000

Alphabet: 0123456789ABCDEF
Original string: 1000000000040900000
Encoded string: DE0B6B3A9D415A0
Decoded string: 1000000000040900000

Alphabet: 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Original string: 1000000000040900000
Encoded string: 7LIEEY0LH7KW
Decoded string: 1000000000040900000

With the last alphabet the encoding saves 7 chars ... not that much ...

HTH
Micha

[Pedro Graca]

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.lang.php.]
Krakatioison wrote:

So I played with your idea a bit and wrote this script:

<?

$str= '1000000000040900000';

echo "Original string:".$str."<br>";

$encoded = base_convert($str, 10, 36); //

echo "Encoded string:".$encoded."<br>";

$decoded = base_convert($encoded, 36, 10);

echo "Decoded string:".$decoded."<br>";

?>

Are your numbers 'n' always 18 digits long?

php$ cat longn.php
<?php
function test($str) {
if (strlen($str) != 18) {echo "$str: Oops, wrong length\n\n"; return;}
$str1 = substr($str, 0, 9);
$str2 = substr($str, 9, 9);
echo 'Original string: ', $str, ' ==> ';

$encoded = base_convert($str1, 10, 36);
$encoded .= '-' . base_convert($str2, 10, 36);
echo 'Encoded string: ', $encoded, "\n";

$enc = explode('-', $encoded);
$decoded = substr('00000000' . base_convert($enc[0], 36, 10), -9);
$decoded .= substr('00000000' . base_convert($enc[1], 36, 10), -9);
echo ' Decoded string: ', $decoded, "\n\n";
}

/* test data */
$str= '000000000040900000'; test($str);
$str= '000000000040900001'; test($str);
$str= '900000000040900000'; test($str);
$str= '900000000040900001'; test($str);
$str= '123456789012345678'; test($str);
$str= '987654321098765432'; test($str);
$str= '111111111111111111'; test($str);
$str= '555555555555555555'; test($str);
$str= '999999999999999999'; test($str);
$str= '000000000000000000'; test($str);
?>

php$ php longn.php
Original string: 000000000040900000 ==> Encoded string: 0-ocmn4
Decoded string: 000000000040900000

Original string: 000000000040900001 ==> Encoded string: 0-ocmn5
Decoded string: 000000000040900001

Original string: 900000000040900000 ==> Encoded string: evu4g0-ocmn4
Decoded string: 900000000040900000

Original string: 900000000040900001 ==> Encoded string: evu4g0-ocmn5
Decoded string: 900000000040900001

Original string: 123456789012345678 ==> Encoded string: 21i3v9-7clzi
Decoded string: 123456789012345678

Original string: 987654321098765432 ==> Encoded string: gc0uy9-1msvw8
Decoded string: 987654321098765432

Original string: 111111111111111111 ==> Encoded string: 1u5hvr-1u5hvr
Decoded string: 111111111111111111

Original string: 555555555555555555 ==> Encoded string: 96rher-96rher
Decoded string: 555555555555555555

Original string: 999999999999999999 ==> Encoded string: gjdgxr-gjdgxr
Decoded string: 999999999999999999

Original string: 000000000000000000 ==> Encoded string: 0-0
Decoded string: 000000000000000000
--
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[Krakartioison]

Wow guys... I just came home and all your answers are really helpful.
I'll be using one of the answers and I'll write back which one I decided to
use, just so you can see it running on my site, or write somewhere to your
resume or whatever, that you helped on www.newsbackup.com project.
Thanks a bunch. Really, really appreciated.

Joe

[Krakartioison]

Dear Michael,
thanks a lot for helping me with this code.
I had to do a small changes with leading zeros and added some additional
coding to add these missing zeros.
But it all came to work out just perfectly. I really appreciate your help.
I used alphabet like this:
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ
You can see it working now : http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=Gnte
Wherever you click on the site now it ends with characters out of mentioned
alphabet, most I've seen was 6 decimal places...which is nice comparing to
starting 18 decimal places.
Great job.
Joe

[Krakartioison]

There is yet another question here:
- when you look at this address (http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=Gnte)
, it has small and capital letters and in some cases numbers as well.

Do you guys think it will be indexed properly by Google?
Can Google see the difference between small and capital letters?

Joe

[Wakeley Purple]

Krakatioison wrote:

My sites navigation is like this:

http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000

, depending on the variable "n" (which is always a number), it will take
me anywhere on the site... this number is always changing as I have
hundreds of thousand of pages of text on my site.

Problem:
- in my opinion this just not only look weird, but the variable "n"
(number) is too long.

I need a way to somehow express this number in shorter form. Some encoding
and decoding way to express this number as something shorter.
For example: 000000000040900000 could become something like : AhD7
so the link: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000
would look like: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=AhD7

You know what I mean.

So, I tried to think about it, and I played with the idea to use of
gzencode or gzcompress. Tried it, but these will generate the short code
full of characters out of normal ascii, spaces and so.... I can't use
that, then my site won't be search engine friendly.

Please, do you have any suggestions?
Or some short encoding decoding script? Your script can be forever part of
my site.

Joe

It looks like your number always has a lot of repeating '0's. That makes it
a good candidate for Run Length Encoding (RLE). Pick a character to
introduce a sequence of zeros and add a count of how many to represent. For
example, using 'Z' as the introducer:

000000000040900000 has 10 leading '0's, so we can compress the first 9 to
'Z9'. Now we have Z9040900000. You can also replace the trailing '0's with
'Z5'. Then you wind up with Z90409Z5.

'course you have to write the code ot encode it 8).

--
Wake

[Gordon Burditt]

>My sites navigation is like this:

http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000

, depending on the variable "n" (which is always a number), it will take me
anywhere on the site... this number is always changing as I have hundreds of
thousand of pages of text on my site.

Problem:
- in my opinion this just not only look weird, but the variable "n" (number)
is too long.

I need a way to somehow express this number in shorter form. Some encoding
and decoding way to express this number as something shorter.
Ok, here's the brute force method:

Make a list of all possible values of "n". (Arrange to keep updating
the list if more can be added). Put these in a database table.
Assign a sequence number to each of them, starting from 0. Look
up the value, replace it with the sequence number, possibly in
base64 to make it even shorter.

When you get the new value of "n", (un-base64 it if necessary),
look it up in the same database table, for a matching sequence
number, then get the corresponding long form. Then use it.
For example: 000000000040900000 could become something like : AhD7
so the link: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?...00000040900000
would look like: http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=AhD7

Gordon L. Burditt

[Jeff Evans]

Krakartioison < do**********@gmail.com > wrote:

There is yet another question here:
- when you look at this address
(http://www.newsbackup.com/index.php?n=Gnte) , it has small and capital
letters and in some cases numbers as well. Do you guys think it will be
indexed properly by Google? Can Google see the difference between small
and capital letters? Joe
I don't think Google indexes dynamic pages well anyway (with querystrings).
You'll notice sites like Amazon and eBay use custom DLLs so their "dynamic"
content can have a pseudo-static url such as

<
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...691493-5262550

and even

< http://search.ebay.com/portable-dvd_...categoryZ52473 >

for searches, presumably to allow for better Google indexing.
--
Jeff Evans
Morgan Stanley Investment Management IT
www.jeffevans.us

[L�ʻie Techie]

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 23:40:14 -0400, Krakartioison wrote:

Do you guys think it will be indexed properly by Google? Can Google see
the difference between small and capital letters?

It can for URLs. I believe it doesn't distinguish case for the page's
body, however, unless one of the search terms is in mixed case.

HTH,
La'ie Techie