How to generate GUID or UUID in Golang with example

How to generate GUID or UUID in Golang with example

In this tutorial, Learned about how to generate GUID in golang with go.uuid and google.uuid packages.

A unique identifier is a unique string to represent identifier in software applications.

Two types of unique identifiers are used in applications.

  • UUID - universally unique identifier,
  • GUID - globally unique identifier

These are used in the database for columns to act as the primary key in MongoDB or SQL database. And also you can store cookies or session-id in front-end applications.

UUID or GUID is alias both refer same and contains 16 bytes or 128 bits in size separated in 5 groups by hyphens.

You can check my previous posts.

golang uuid package

There are multiple packages that provide uuid with based on versions of RFC 4122🔗

  • jakehl/goid
  • google/uuid

There are multiple ways we can generate unique identifiers in the Go language

In this example, We are going to use the google/uuid package to generate uuid

How to generate UUID in Go using google uuid

First, Install the package

go get github.com/google/uuid

Next, use package in using import in Go code.

Here is an example program to generate UUID in the go language

package main

import (
  "fmt"
    "github.com/google/uuid"
)

func main() {
  uuidValue := uuid.New()
  fmt.Println("%s", uuidValue)
}

And the output

ce547c40-acf9-11e6-80f5-76304dec7eb7

Generate UUID in Go

Install the package

go get github.com/google/uuid

Here is an example program to generate UUID in the go language

package main

import (
  "fmt"
    "github.com/google/uuid"
)

func main() {
    uuidValue := uuid.New()
  fmt.Println("%s", uuidValue)
}

And the output

ce547c40-acf9-11e6-80f5-76304dec7eb7

Generate all versions of UUID in Go Language

go.uuid package is popular for generate UUID with all v1,v2,v3,v4,v5 versions.

Next, Command line, install a package with the below command

go get github.com/satori/go.uuid

Example program to generate all versions of UUID in golang

package main

import (
  "fmt"
  "github.com/satori/go.uuid"
)

func main() {
    v1value, err := uuid.NewV1()
    fmt.Println("%s", myuuid)

    v2value, err := uuid.NewV2()
    fmt.Println("%s", v2value)

    v3value, err := uuid.NewV3()
    fmt.Println("%s", v3value)

    v4value, err := uuid.NewV4()
    fmt.Println("%s", v3value)

    v5value, err := uuid.NewV5()
    fmt.Println("%s", v4value)
}

Output

8e6a0a6b-895d-4a06-80b4-1f59e3be595e
bade98bd-c2b0-4430-9038-0196c7f16dfc
e2f35db9-11b3-4353-aa7c-1f578bd142e6
b351ec0c-5c93-4474-9c31-ad13b0960b97
e1e2c956-7f42-4e4d-bcea-47ca6ee19e9e

How to Convert UUID to String in Golang

  • First, Generate uuid using uuid.new of google uuid
  • Next, call String() method on uuid
  • It returns uuid String
package main

import (
  "fmt"
    "github.com/google/uuid"
)

func main() {
  uuidValue := uuid.New()
  fmt.Println("%s", uuidValue)
  uuidStr = uuidValue.String()

}