what if there are more than 16 variants per an ingredient? We run out of digits.
No you don't. You aren't limited to base-16. You can use 0-9a-z as your "digits". You can also know when a particular component requires more than one digit space, and use as many as you need.

UpdateIf you need your system to be expandable, you can use _ as a field separator, so your keys for a three-component inventory might look like: 

id_0_1c_z
id_0_0_0

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We're not really tightening our belts, it just feels that way because we're getting fatter.

In reply to Re: How do you name the possibilities? by Roy Johnson
in thread How do you name the possibilities? by dimar

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