UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) are unique identifiers widely used in computing to uniquely identify entities. They are usually generated randomly, but there are different versions of UUIDs that have specific generation methods. In this article, we will focus on version 1 of UUID and how it is generated. We will also examine examples of version 1 UUIDs and break down their structure to understand how they are constructed.
UUIDs (Universally Unique Identifier) are unique identifiers used in computing to uniquely identify entities, such as users, files, transactions, etc. UUIDs are generally generated randomly, but there are several versions of UUIDs with different generation methods. In this article, we will focus on UUID version 1.
UUID version 1 is generated using the computer's clock and the MAC address of the network interface. The computer's clock is used to obtain an accurate timestamp, while the MAC address of the network interface is used to ensure the UUID's uniqueness. The process of generating a UUID version 1 can be summarized in three steps:
Here is an example of a UUID version 1 generated from the timestamp 2023-02-24 13:35:42 and the MAC address 00-0A-95-9D-68-16: 7b19ef41-4e3d-11ec-8000-00-0A-95-9D-68-16
The first field (7b19ef41-4e3d-11ec) is the timestamp converted to the number of 100 nanoseconds. The second field (8000) is an extension reserve field that can be used to store additional information. The third field (00-0A-95-9D-68-16) is the MAC address of the network interface.