Are Your PHP Prefixes Truly Unique? A Deep Dive into Collision Probability from `mt_rand` to `random_bytes`

Generating unique identifiers in PHP is a common task, but the wrong approach can lead to catastrophic data collisions. This article provides a deep analysis of the collision probabilities of prefixes generated using `mt_rand`, `microtime`, and `random_bytes`. We uncover the critical flaws of `mt_rand` in large-scale applications and offer best practices for different concurrency scenarios to help you build more robust and reliable systems.