# Choose a case-sensitive Nano ID

Generate a different identifier format and understand why short IDs and letter case need care.

Source: https://help.smartfact.ai/guidbench/guides/nano-id

Audience: Operator

Generate a different identifier format and understand why short IDs and letter case need care. This is isolated practice with invented records. Nothing is uploaded or written into a live system.

## Choose a case-sensitive Nano ID

1. **Choose a Nano ID**

   Choose a Nano ID.

   Nano ID and ULID are different formats from UUID. Nano ID is case-sensitive; changing its case changes the identifier.

2. **Choose two short identifiers**

   Choose two short identifiers.

   Use the default length of 21 characters. Reducing the length increases the chance of a collision.

3. **Generate Nano ID values**

   Generate Nano ID values.

   These identifiers are not compact UUIDs. Preserve every character, including its case, when copying them to another system.

[Watch or practise this chapter](https://help.smartfact.ai/guidbench/demo?guide=nano-id&chapter=nano-id&audience=office)

Review the result and its limits before using it in another application.