Generating Unique Token in C# | Generating Unique Token that Expires after 24 Hours in C# | C# Tutorial

There are two possible approaches; either you create a unique value and store somewhere along with the creation time, for example in a database, or you put the creation time inside the token so that you can decode it later and see when it was created.

To create a unique token:

string token = Convert.ToBase64String(Guid.NewGuid().ToByteArray());

Basic example of creating a unique token containing a time stamp:

byte[] time = BitConverter.GetBytes(DateTime.UtcNow.ToBinary());
byte[] key = Guid.NewGuid().ToByteArray();
string token = Convert.ToBase64String(time.Concat(key).ToArray());

To decode the token to get the creation time:

byte[] data = Convert.FromBase64String(token);
DateTime when = DateTime.FromBinary(BitConverter.ToInt64(data, 0));
if (when < DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(-24)) {
  // too old
}

Note: If you need the token with the time stamp to be secure, you need to encrypt it. Otherwise a user could figure out what it contains and create a false token.