The main goals of min-string are:
- Create the shortest string possible from a given set of integers
- Use a small set of characters that will work in a URL
min-string uses ASCII characters starting from ! (33) to ~ (126) excluding a few characters that influence the way a URL works (/\.?#) as well as the space ( ) and comma (,). min-string is customizable, modular, functional, and simple.
Written with no dependencies in ES6. Can be used via npm with yarn add min-string or as a minified script available at https://unpkg.com/min-string@latest/min-string.min.js
The script is 8KB minified.
min-string only works on arrays of integers between 0 and 255. Compression ratios are often within between 25% to 35% of the original size but results vary. With more random or unpredictable sets of data, min-string can usually still make smaller optimizations but sizes will likely be higher. It is intended for small data and has not been tested with large sets of data.
Read about the blog post that inspired it here https://crabcyb.org/post/minimizing-shape-up
The package is free to use for any use. I would love to know if you use it in your project. This package is not in any way an encryption method or a security feature. There is no salt with this package. It only benefits from its obscurity.
min-string works best with data that shares common patterns. This script is focused on replacing common patterns with tokens. In my case, a lot of values are 0 and 255. On random data, it will usually still find a pattern but the result isn't likely as small. You can also change the common patterns by modifying min.patterns and min.other_patterns.
Benchmark
Using the following integer array as input
27,48,0,0,0,0,31,0,0,0,0,0,127,128,0,0,0,1,255,248,0,0,0,7,255,254,0,0,0,31,255,255,0,0,0,127,255,255,0,0,0,255,255,255,0,0,127,255,255,255,0,0,255,255,255,254,0,1,255,255,255,252,12,3,255,255,255,224,19,127,255,255,252,0,33,255,255,255,254,0,65,255,255,255,254,0,129,255,255,255,254,0,15,255,255,255,254,0,8,127,255,255,255,0,16,127,255,255,255,0,16,62,127,255,255,0,32,29,191,255,254,128,32,9,111,128,204,64,0,1,107,0,102,0,0,2,98,0,35,0,0,4,70,0,33,0,0,0,132,0,16,128,0,1,8,0,0,128,0,0,8,0,0,64
| method | length | ratio |
|---|---|---|
| raw | 497 | 100% |
| hashids | 409 | 82.3% |
| base64 | 220 | 44.3% |
| min-string | 146 | 29.4% |
| https://crabcyb.org/post/minimizing-large-shape-up | 111 | 22.3% |
| https://crabcyb.org/post/traversing-shape-up | 104 | 20.9% |
Using the following integer array as input
94,89,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,31,192,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,31,252,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,31,255,128,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,31,255,224,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,15,255,240,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,15,255,248,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,7,255,254,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,7,255,255,128,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,3,255,255,240,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,255,255,254,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,255,255,255,128,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,255,255,255,240,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,127,255,255,248,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,63,255,255,252,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,63,255,255,254,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,31,255,255,254,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,15,255,255,252,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,15,255,240,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,7,255,248,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,7,255,252,0,15,128,0,0,0,0,0,7,255,254,0,3,192,0,0,0,0,0,7,255,255,0,0,248,0,0,0,0,0,7,255,255,128,0,62,0,0,0,0,0,15,255,255,192,0,7,128,0,0,0,0,63,255,255,240,0,1,240,63,254,0,7,255,255,255,248,0,0,124,127,255,255,255,255,255,255,252,0,0,31,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,254,0,0,7,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,254,0,0,3,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,0,0,0,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,128,0,0,127,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,192,0,0,63,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,224,0,0,31,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,240,0,0,15,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,252,0,0,7,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,254,0,0,7,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,0,0,3,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,128,0,1,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,192,0,1,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,224,0,0,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,240,0,0,127,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,248,0,0,63,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,252,0,0,31,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,254,0,0,15,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,0,0,7,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,128,0,3,255,255,240,63,255,255,255,255,224,0,1,255,255,240,0,255,255,255,255,224,0,0,255,255,248,0,15,255,255,255,240,0,0,127,255,252,0,1,255,255,255,248,0,0,63,255,254,0,0,127,255,255,252,0,0,31,255,255,0,0,3,255,255,252,0,0,15,255,255,128,0,0,31,255,254,0,0,7,255,255,128,0,0,3,255,255,0,0,3,255,255,224,0,0,1,255,255,128,0,1,255,255,224,0,0,0,255,255,192,0,0,255,255,240,0,0,0,127,255,192,0,0,127,255,248,0,0,0,127,255,224,0,0,63,255,252,0,0,0,63,255,240,0,0,31,255,254,0,0,0,15,255,248,0,0,31,255,254,0,0,0,7,253,252,0,0,15,255,255,0,0,0,1,254,254,0,0,7,255,255,0,0,0,0,255,127,0,0,7,255,255,0,0,0,0,127,191,128,0,3,255,255,0,0,0,0,31,207,192,0,3,254,255,0,0,0,0,15,231,224,0,1,254,255,0,0,0,0,7,243,240,0,1,254,127,0,0,0,0,3,249,248,0,0,254,127,0,0,0,0,0,252,252,0,1,254,63,0,0,0,0,0,126,62,0,0,254,63,128,0,0,0,0,63,31,0,0,126,31,128,0,0,0,0,31,143,128,0,255,15,192,0,0,0,0,7,199,192,0,127,7,224,0,0,0,0,3,243,240,0,63,1,224,0,0,0,0,1,249,248,0,31,128,240,0,0,0,0,0,252,252,0,15,128,120,0,0,0,0,0,126,126,0,7,192,60,0,0,0,0,0,31,159,0,3,224,30,0,0,0,0,0,15,207,128,1,240,15,0,0,0,0,0,7,231,192,0,248,7,128,0,0,0,0,3,243,224,0,56,3,192,0,0,0,0,1,249,240,0,30,0,224,0,0,0,0,1,252,248,0,14,0,255,0,0,0,0,0,126,60,0,7,0,63,192,0,0,0,0,31,30,0,3,192,15,224,0,0,0,0,15,143,0,1,224,7,248,0,0,0,0,7,199,240,0,240,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,227,254,0,120,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,241,255,0,60,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,124,127,192,31,192,0,0,0,0,0,0,63,227,192,15,240,0,0,0,0,0,0,31,240,0,1,252,0,0,0,0,0,0,15,248,0,0,126,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,252,0
| method | length | ratio |
|---|---|---|
| raw | 3035 | 100% |
| hashids | 2554 | 84.2% |
| base64 | 1396 | 46% |
| min-string | 764 | 25.2% |
| https://crabcyb.org/post/minimizing-large-shape-up | 277 | 9.1% |
min-string with values over 255
min-string includes two functions that are not used internally: normalize and denormalize. These functions add support for larger integers. The max is determined from data automatically (at a performance cost) and is required for denormalizing. 256<<8 and 256<<16 max values are supported. Bear in mind that higher max values don't get minimized as well.
Using the following integer array as input
5168,0,8176,0,64,16376,0,96,32764,0,112,65534,0,121,65535,0,123,65535,49153,15487,65535,61446,32767,65535,63516,33791,65535,65528,1023,65535,65520,1023,65535,65504,18431,65535,65408,16383,65535,63488,8191,65534,0,8191,65535,0,8115,65087,32768,7939,40507,32768,3,36411,32768,7,7795,32768,15,7
| method | length | ratio |
|---|---|---|
| raw | 291 | 100% |
| hashids | 209 | 71.8% |
| base64 | 160 | 55% |
| min-string | 107 | 36.8% |
Using the following integer array as input
3870976,8388672,8192,1048584,3584,327686,12584496,133123,14549289,38016,4866085,2113272,1397770,11142485,174721,5587114,10507600,2795541,5507754,349442,11174229,4237984,5591082,11015508,698885,5571242,8475968,11182165,5253800,1397770,11142485,174721,5587114,10507600,2861077,5511851,2088906,11183445,5417641,5592234,11206655,13281919
| method | length | ratio |
|---|---|---|
| raw | 333 | 100% |
| hashids | 233 | 70% |
| base64 | 168 | 50.5% |
| min-string | 144 | 43.2% |
min-string with strings
I've experimented with strings here https://crabcyb.org/experiment/min-string-string
If you have a string with repeating patterns similar to "AAAAAABBBBCCCCAAAA" min.counter might also be useful