Generate unique memorable ids

I wanted to generate an 8 character web compatible (base64 encoded) id that is fairly easy to type or memorize from SQL, so came up with this inspired from this Postgres approach

SELECT randomId
from openjson(
    (
        SELECT randomBytes
        FROM (SELECT CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM(6) as randomBytes) T
        FOR JSON AUTO
    )
) WITH(randomId varchar(max))

Which generates ids like this

syHJlOJv
XWLIxtId
jpjfi13W
r3E64qAZ

So how does this work?

The SQL function CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM is the key to generating the uniqueness and random bytes that the rest of the expression uses to give ids.

This SELECT CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM(6) as randomId will generate a set of 6 random bytes like so B1 A6 68 FE D7 59.  Why did I use 6 - 8 bit bytes?  Because 6 * 8 = 48 bits.  Divide the 48 bits into base64 means that I should divide by 6 because each 6 bits represent a character in base64 so that gives me 48 / 6 = 8 base64 characters.

So what does that do?  Let's break it down by separating all the statements

Examining the results by creating a temp table like so

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #tempId

SELECT CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM(6) as randomId
INTO #tempId

SELECT COLUMN_NAME, DATA_TYPE, CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH
FROM tempdb.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME LIKE '#tempId%'

And we get

Turn the varbinary bytes into a JSON field

SELECT randomId
FROM #tempId
FOR JSON AUTO

Now extract the field automatically encoded data with OPENJSON and WITH like so

SELECT randomId
FROM OPENJSON
(
'[{"randomId":"saZo/tdZ"}]'
) WITH (randomId varchar(MAX))

and you get