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I am creating an Android application that sets alarms based on the String date of a list of Objects (PendingIntents, with each taking in an id, that is an integer). In order to cancel the PendingIntent, I must know the PendingIntent's id.

I am having trouble of figuring out a way to generate a unique id reliably with a minimal chance of collisions. If I simply convert the String date to miliseconds, I believe that would not be reliable since the user can change timezones on their phone and the computer can make timestamp computations that are off by a few miliseconds.

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    Define "minimal". A random 32-bit integer has a chance of collision so low that you're virtually guaranteed to never have that problem as long as your app lives - is that not enough for you? – Kilian Foth Mar 18 at 7:17
  • @KilianFoth Gotcha. Should I use Java's hashCode function to convert the String into an integer or use the timestamp in miliseconds as the id? – Adam Lee Mar 18 at 7:26
  • One option could be the randomUUID method - stackoverflow.com/questions/2982748/create-a-guid-in-java/… – Ben Cottrell Mar 18 at 23:15
  • timestamp in seconds. – Eyosiyas Mar 24 at 15:26
  • You can use uptimeMillis() or one of the other monotonic clocks. They won't go backwards except on reboot, and I'm pretty sure PendingIntents don't survive reboot. – Jerry101 Mar 27 at 3:29

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