I'm trying to think of the best algorithm that generates user names, based on first and last names. I have other data available to me, but it seems best to keep it limited to these fields. I'm looking for simple peer review, the idea is to eliminate 'teh stupidness' of allowing users to create their own names in a massively overloaded system. Domains will function as namespaces. But, the demo namespace will most probably implement a pollution of all other namespaces. This will function for the 'beta' version of our product and for demonstrations to non-clients.

My current plan is to implement the following fallback system. Abbreviations as follows

fi
first name initial.
li
last name initial
fn
first name
ln
last name
md5 randomness. (4chars of md5 on pkid or something)

Algo should work as following

  1. fi.ln
  2. or fn.li
  3. or fn.ln
  4. cycle through again with .md5

I think these odds are sufficient enough to eliminate any chances of duplicates. logins (unique constraint will still be in effect.) I would implement this database-side, and return the first username that passes.

Any other ideas on generating logins, that are typically easy to remember, but fall back gracefully? I'm trying to proactively avoid the situation like aim, where you have to guess logins for an hour to find an available one, while being able to generate demo logins, from preexisting information.

Alternativly, I could cycle through fi.ln, adding on one letter to fi untill i have a match. and then alternating with the full first name, adding on letters of the li untill the last name has been completed, but in the event 'John Smith' you would be talking about many hits on the DB rather than my 5 max system - doubt it would be an issue though



Evan Carroll
www.EvanCarroll.com

In reply to Autogenerating usernames by EvanCarroll

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