When to use UUID

Question

I use MYSQL, but I think this is a general database design
question:

Is it a good idea to use CreateUUID to generate field data for
unique indexes and primary keys? I don't know an awful lot
about the performance aspect of databases and I'm concerned that
using keys and indexes that are 35 characters long, will waste disk
space and processing time.

If I did use UUIDs, would 
Partial indexing be the best way to handle them?

JaredJBlackburn · Answer

ColdFusion's UUID is overkill for many database needs. The majority of the time, if you need to generate a new series of numbers to act as unique id for a table, you'll want to have the database do that for you by adding a identity column to the table.

The UUID is meant to be unique over a network, which is why it's so large. The records in your table need only be unique in that table so you don't need such a long number. It would be wasteful in terms of storage, memory, bandwidth and would be hard for humans to deal with when they need to.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded