UUID Generator

A UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is a 128-bit value used to uniquely identify information in distributed systems. The standard format is 8-4-4-4-12 hexadecimal characters separated by hyphens, e.g.: 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

UUID v4 is generated using random numbers. It has no structure — all bits (except the version and variant bits) are random. It's the most commonly used version because it doesn't require a unique host identifier or timestamp.

UUID v4 has 122 random bits, giving 2^122 ≈ 5.3 × 10^36 possible values. The probability of generating two identical UUIDs is astronomically small — roughly 1 in a billion trillion.

GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) is Microsoft's implementation of the UUID standard. They are functionally identical. The terms are used interchangeably in most contexts, with GUID being more common in Windows/C# environments.