What is an UUID / GUID
An answer to "What is an UUID?" would be "A GUID" this answer wouldn't
help most of us any further though.
UUID stands for Universally Unique IDentifier, GUID for Globally Unique
IDentifier. The correct way to construct these identifiers is described
in RFC 4122,
ITU-T Rec. X.667
and
ISO/IEC 11578:1996.
The main function of an UUID is being unique.
What is it used for:
UUIDs are applied for identification purposes in a number of fields in
the computer industry.
Possible uses are (but are not limited to):
- The identifiers in the windows registry.
- Identifiers used in databases.
- Identifiers used in RPC (COM, CORBA) (remote procedure calls)
To ensure nobody else would - by accident - provide something
conflicting.
What does it look like:
UUIDs are basically 128 bit numbers, normally presented in the
following hexadecimal - grouped form:
58e0a7d7-eebc-11d8-9669-0800200c9a66
The nil UUID:
A special type of UUID is guaranteed to not be unique, and easily
recognised. This is the nil UUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000.
It can serve to clear UUIDs and as a template while cunstructing new
ones.
Only for version 1 UUIDs, third group must start with a 1.
If you have improvements, contact information on
the homepage of this host.
An agent adding logging to your java programs at runtime
The uptime of home.famkruithof.net
The exercises of the Enterprise Javabeans 3.0 book performed on the Sun Application Server instead of JBoss
|