In this post, I’ll show you how to easily create UUIDs in TypeScript.
First, you need a suitable UUID library. For this, I recommend the npm library uuid. This library is perfectly suited for use with TypeScript.
You can install the library in your TypeScript project using the following command:
npm i uuid
If you want to use UUIDs in many of your projects, you can also install the library globally:
npm i -g uuid
How do you use UUIDs in TypeScript?
Using UUIDs in TypeScript is very simple. No boilerplate code is required, and no extensive setup is needed.
Take a look at the following example:
import { v4 } from 'uuid';
let myUuid = v4();
console.log(myUuid);
This will then produce an output similar to the following:
38b0a4ca-74c2-4d37-a556-5203eff5bff3
What are UUIDs used for?
In software development, unique identifiers (so-called IDs) are often needed for data records. For a long time, sequential numbers were the standard. However, sequential numbers have the disadvantage that the IDs of other records are easy to guess — something you usually want to avoid.
In this case, UUIDs are the means of choice when you want to clearly distinguish between records. UUIDs consist of 128 bits, which are generated randomly but systematically. The level of entropy is so high that it is virtually impossible for the same UUID to be generated twice.
Which UUIDs are the best? v4, v7?
You can answer this question just as generally as the question “Which car is the best?” In both cases, the answer is: “It depends.” Depends on what?
In depends on your specific needs. I definitely recommend reading the Wikipedia article on UUID to better understand the differences and advantages of the different UUID versions.
The Wikipedia article on UUIDs now mentions 8 different versions. The main difference between UUID version 4 and UUID version 7, for example, is that UUID v4 consists solely of random numbers, whereas UUID v7 also uses the UNIX timestamp. In my view, this reduces the chance of collisions (i.e., duplicate UUIDs).
Your opinion
Do you use UUIDs in your projects? Or do you consider it unnecessary effort?
Feel free to leave me a comment below this article. I’m curious to hear your thoughts.
