snowflake-generator

snowflake-generator

A lightweight Twitter Snowflake generation package utilising TypeScript.

Getting Started

Install the npm package

npm install snowflake-generator

Require the package into your code

const { Generator } = require('snowflake-generator');

Construct a new Snowflake Generator with the EPOCH timestamp in milliseconds

const SnowflakeGenerator = new Generator(1420070400000); 
// Thursday, 1 January 2015 00:00:00

Generate a Snowflake

const Snowflake = SnowflakeGenerator.generate();

Generator (class)

Constructor

new Generator(epoch?: Date|number, shardID?: number);

param	type	optional	default	description
epoch	Date|number	true	946684800000	The epoch timestamp to generate from.
shardID	number	true	1	Useful when running multiple generators at the same time to prevent duplicates.

Properties

.EPOCH

The generators epoch timestamp in milliseconds.
@type number

.SHARD_ID

The id of the shard running this generator.
@type number

.INCREMENT

The current increment iteration this generator is on.
@type number

Methods

Generates snowflakes.

Generator.generate(amount?: number, timestamp?: Date|number);

parameter	type	optional	default	description
amount	number	true	1	Amount of snowflakes to generate, recommended not to go above 1024 or duplicates will arise.
timestamp	Date|number	true	Date.now	Timestamp to generate from

@returns bigint|bigint[]

Deconstruct a snowflake to its values using the Generator.epoch.

Generator.deconstruct(snowflake: SnowflakeResolvable);

parameters	type	description
snowflake	SnowflakeResolvable	Snowflake(s) to deconstruct

@returns DeconstructedSnowflake

Types & Interfaces

SnowflakeResolvable

Resolvable value types for a valid Snowflake.

• string
• number
• bigint

DeconstructedSnowflake

Interface of a Snowflake after Generator.deconstruct().

• snowflake - Snowflake deconstructed from
  @type bigint
• timestamp - The timestamp the snowflake was generated
  @type bigint
• shard_id - The shard_id used when generating
  @type bigint
• increment - The increment of this snowflake
  @type bigint
• binary - The 64Bit snowflake binary string
  @type string

Extra Credit

Generating more than 1024 snowflakes

let snowflakes = [];
let ts = Date.now();
let amount = 20000;
for (let i = 0; i < (amount / 1024); i++) {
    // this could be improved, but is proof of concept.
    let new_amount = i + 1 >= (amount / 1024) ? amount % 1024 : 1024;
    snowflakes = snowflakes.concat(generator.generate(new_amount, ts + i));
}

Note: When parsing this array through a duplication checking function it returns 0 found duplicates.

> console.log(generator) after running script.

> Note: increment == amount.

Generator { epoch: 1420070400000, shard_id: 1, increment: 20000 }