Base 62 conversion

There is no standard module for this, but I have written my own functions to achieve that.

BASE62 = "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"

def encode(num, alphabet):
    """Encode a positive number into Base X and return the string.

    Arguments:
    - `num`: The number to encode
    - `alphabet`: The alphabet to use for encoding
    """
    if num == 0:
        return alphabet[0]
    arr = []
    arr_append = arr.append  # Extract bound-method for faster access.
    _divmod = divmod  # Access to locals is faster.
    base = len(alphabet)
    while num:
        num, rem = _divmod(num, base)
        arr_append(alphabet[rem])
    arr.reverse()
    return ''.join(arr)

def decode(string, alphabet=BASE62):
    """Decode a Base X encoded string into the number

    Arguments:
    - `string`: The encoded string
    - `alphabet`: The alphabet to use for decoding
    """
    base = len(alphabet)
    strlen = len(string)
    num = 0

    idx = 0
    for char in string:
        power = (strlen - (idx + 1))
        num += alphabet.index(char) * (base ** power)
        idx += 1

    return num

Notice the fact that you can give it any alphabet to use for encoding and decoding. If you leave the alphabet argument out, you are going to get the 62 character alphabet defined on the first line of code, and hence encoding/decoding to/from 62 base.

Hope this helps.

PS – For URL shorteners, I have found that it’s better to leave out a few confusing characters like 0Ol1oI etc. Thus I use this alphabet for my URL shortening needs – "23456789abcdefghijkmnpqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ"

Have fun.