Username generator

A simple script to generate usernames based on a name and year of birth.

Project information

For more information see here: Programming Project Paperwork: Username generator on Google Docs.

Usage

You can use this on its own:

$usernamegenerator = new UsernameGenerator();
$username = $usernamegenerator->createNew($name, $dateofbirth);

The createNew function takes those two arguments: $name and $dateofbirth. $name should be a string containing a name, for example, "Samuel Elliott". $dateofbirth can contain either a UNIX timestamp or any date string recognised by strtotime.

You can also extend it. You could do this in a large or public application to check if a username already exists.

class MyUsernameGenerator extends UsernameGenerator {
	public function isUnique($username) {
		// Check if this username exists in the database
		// ...
		if(is_object($user_row))
			return true;
		else return false;
	}
}

This lets the class know if a username already exists, and it can then re-generate the username.

Return values

On success, a username in the format: "SaElliott2001" will be returned. If the $name argument contained multiple names (for example "Samuel Thomas Elliott") a string in the format "STElliott2001" will be used. If the username already exists "." and a number will be appended to the username (for example "SaElliott2011.2"). An Exception object will be thrown on an error.