Why are UUID's presented in the format "8-4-4-4-12" (digits)? I've had a look around for the reason but can't find the decision that calls for it.
Example of UUID formatted as hex string: 58D5E212-165B-4CA0-909B-C86B9CEE0111
Format. In its canonical textual representation, the 16 octets of a UUID are represented as 32 hexadecimal (base-16) digits, displayed in five groups separated by hyphens, in the form 8-4-4-4-12 for a total of 36 characters (32 hexadecimal characters and 4 hyphens).
Why use a UUID? The main advantage of using UUIDs is that you can create a UUID and use it to identify something, such as a row in a database, with near certainty that the identifier will not exist in another row in your system or anyone else's.
A UUID – that's short for Universally Unique IDentifier, by the way – is a 36-character alphanumeric string that can be used to identify information (such as a table row).
Version-4 UUIDs are randomly generated. There are over 5.3 x 1036 unique v4 UUIDs. This is the most common UUID version. Version-4, variant-1 UUIDs are used in the game Minecraft. You can use our tool to generate Minecraft UUIDs than can be used in-game. Version-4, variant-2 is called a "GUID" on Microsoft systems.
It's separated by time, version, clock_seq_hi, clock_seq_lo, node
, as indicated in the following rfc.
From the IETF RFC4122:
4.1.2. Layout and Byte Order To minimize confusion about bit assignments within octets, the UUID record definition is defined only in terms of fields that are integral numbers of octets. The fields are presented with the most significant one first. Field Data Type Octet Note # time_low unsigned 32 0-3 The low field of the bit integer timestamp time_mid unsigned 16 4-5 The middle field of the bit integer timestamp time_hi_and_version unsigned 16 6-7 The high field of the bit integer timestamp multiplexed with the version number clock_seq_hi_and_rese unsigned 8 8 The high field of the rved bit integer clock sequence multiplexed with the variant clock_seq_low unsigned 8 9 The low field of the bit integer clock sequence node unsigned 48 10-15 The spatially unique bit integer node identifier In the absence of explicit application or presentation protocol specification to the contrary, a UUID is encoded as a 128-bit object, as follows: The fields are encoded as 16 octets, with the sizes and order of the fields defined above, and with each field encoded with the Most Significant Byte first (known as network byte order). Note that the field names, particularly for multiplexed fields, follow historical practice. 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | time_low | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | time_mid | time_hi_and_version | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |clk_seq_hi_res | clk_seq_low | node (0-1) | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | node (2-5) | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
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