CAPS | : | 57FAD4F1-1CE4-41BE-B7E3-D50A59751E97 | |
---|---|---|---|
LOW | : | 57fad4f1-1ce4-41be-b7e3-d50a59751e97 |
GUID (aka UUID) is an acronym for 'Globally Unique Identifier' (or 'Universally Unique Identifier'). It is a 128-bit integer number used to identify resources. The term GUID is generally used by developers working with Microsoft technologies, while UUID is used everywhere else.
128-bits is big enough and the generation algorithm is unique enough that if 1,000,000,000 GUIDs per second were generated for 1 year the probability of a duplicate would be only 50%. Or if every human on Earth generated 600,000,000 GUIDs there would only be a 50% probability of a duplicate.
GUIDs are used in enterprise software development in C#, Java, and C++ as database keys, component identifiers, or just about anywhere else a truly unique identifier is required. GUIDs are also used to identify all interfaces and objects in COM programming.