Balanced ID Generator

generate.py

def id_factory(prefix=None):

    def generate():
        bytes_ = hashlib.sha1(uuid.uuid1().bytes).digest()
        # base62_encode comes from 
        # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1119722/base-62-conversion-in-python
        id_ = base62_encode(int(bytes_.encode('hex'), base=16))[:12]

        if prefix:
            id_ = prefix + id_

        return id_

    return generate


def eid_factory(prefix=None, alphanum=True):
    """
    Given a prefix, which defaults to None, will generate a function
    which when called, will generate a 10 character id using random() and
    format it as [{prefix}]{xxx}-{xxx}-{xxxx}.
    """
    def generate_eid():
        valid_chars = string.digits
        if alphanum:
            valid_chars += string.ascii_uppercase
        the_eid = ''.join(random.choice(valid_chars) for _ in xrange(10))
        the_eid = '-'.join([the_eid[0:3], the_eid[3:6], the_eid[6:]])
        if prefix:
            the_eid = prefix + the_eid

        return the_eid

    return generate_eid