`firebase-key` is a library of utility functions for manipulating, encoding and decoding Firebase keys.
## API
* [key](#key)
* [date](#date-milliseconds)
* [milliseconds](#date-milliseconds)
* [increment](#increment-decrement)
* [decrement](#increment-decrement)
* [encode](#encode-decode)
* [decode](#encode-decode)
* [encodeLexicographic](#encode-decode-lexicographic)
* [decodeLexicographic](#encode-decode-lexicographic)
### key
```ts
function key(
timestamp: number | Date = Date.now(),
as: "max" | "min" | "random" = "random"
): string
```
This function is based on the Firebase push key/ID generator implemented in [this gist][gist].
If called with no arguments, it generates a Firebase push key/ID using the current time. If a timestamp is specified, it is used in the generation of the key.
By default, the timestamp is combined with random data. If `as` is specified as either `max` or `min`, random data is not used and the generated key will sort either after (for `max`) or before (for `min`) any other keys that that have the same timestamp, but have random data.
### date/milliseconds
```ts
function date(key: string): Date
function milliseconds(key: string): number
```
These functions return the timestamp of a push key/ID, either as a `Date` or as the number of milliseconds elapsed since 1 January 1970 00:00:00 UTC.
### increment/decrement
```ts
function increment(key: string): string
function decrement(key: string): string
```
These functions return a push key/ID that has been incremented or decremented to the next consecutive push key/ID and can be useful when paging through the Firebase database.
### encode/decode
```ts
function encode(text: string): string
function decode(key: string): string
```
These functions encode and decode keys, replacing illegal characters with safe, encoded characters.
`!` is used as an escape character - rather than `%` - for compatibility with the REST API and with the Firebase management console.
### encodeLexicographic/decodeLexicographic
```ts
function encodeLexicographic(value: number): string
function decodeLexicographic(key: string): number
```
These functions encode and decode integer values (both positive and negative) as strings that have a lexicographic ordering that is identical to the numeric ordering. They are based upon an implementation used in [Firepad][firepad].
[gist]: https://gist.github.com/mikelehen/3596a30bd69384624c11
[firepad]: https://github.com/firebase/firepad/blob/v1.4.0/lib/firebase-adapter.js#L375-L403