What is a UUID

A UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is an identifier with so many unique possibilities that it's almost impossible for two of the same to ever be generated. It is standardized to have a suitable complexity that ensures uniqueness for most use cases and always maintains the same number of characters

Why are UUIDs useful?

Uniqueness: Every UUID is almost certainly unique, which means you can generate as many as you need without worrying about duplicates.
Versatility: UUIDs can be used in many applications, from identifying records in databases to tracking sessions and much more.
Independence: UUIDs don't require a central authority to manage or distribute them, making them easy to generate anywhere.

How are UUIDs structured?

A UUID is a 128-bit number, typically represented as a string of 32 hexadecimal characters, divided into five groups separated by hyphens.

Each section of the UUID has a specific purpose, but the main thing to remember is that the entire string is unique.

Types of UUIDs

There are different versions of UUIDs. One of the most common is UUID version 4 (UUIDv4), which is randomly generated. This means it relies on randomness to ensure its uniqueness.

Example Uses

Databases: Assigning a unique ID to each record
Web Applications: Tracking user sessions or orders.
Software Development: Generating unique identifiers for objects or components.

Hold it right there buddy! Isn't it possible to generate the same UUID twice?

Yes, it's technically possible, but it's extremely unlikely. To put it in perspective, the chance of generating a duplicate UUID is so low that it's more likely for a cosmic ray to flip a bit in your computer's memory, causing an error, than it is to generate a duplicate UUID. However, if it's very critical that no two UUIDs are the same, so you should always check to ensure uniqueness after creation.

Are the letters in a UUID case-sensitive?

No, the letters in a UUID are not case-sensitive. However, most of the popular libraries for generating UUIDs output them in lowercase.