uuid

For the creation of RFC4122 UUIDs

• Complete - Support for RFC4122 version 1, 3, 4, and 5 UUIDs
• Cross-platform - Support for ...
  • CommonJS, ECMAScript Modules and CDN builds
  • Node 8, 10, 12, 14
  • Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, IE 11 browsers
  • Webpack and rollup.js module bundlers
  • React Native / Expo
• Secure - Cryptographically-strong random values
• Small - Zero-dependency, small footprint, plays nice with "tree shaking" packagers
• CLI - Includes the uuid command line utility

Upgrading from [email protected]? Your code is probably okay, but check out Upgrading From [email protected] for details.

Quickstart

To create a random UUID...

1. Install

npm install uuid

2. Create a UUID (ES6 module syntax)

import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';
uuidv4(); // ⇨ '9b1deb4d-3b7d-4bad-9bdd-2b0d7b3dcb6d'

... or using CommonJS syntax:

const { v4: uuidv4 } = require('uuid');
uuidv4(); // ⇨ '1b9d6bcd-bbfd-4b2d-9b5d-ab8dfbbd4bed'

For timestamp UUIDs, namespace UUIDs, and other options read on ...

API Summary

API

uuid.NIL

The nil UUID string (all zeros).

Example:

import { NIL as NIL_UUID } from 'uuid';

NIL_UUID; // ⇨ '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000'

uuid.parse(str)

Convert UUID string to array of bytes

Note: Ordering of values in the byte arrays used by parse() and stringify() follows the left ↠ right order of hex-pairs in UUID strings. As shown in the example below.

Example:

import { parse as uuidParse } from 'uuid';

// Parse a UUID
const bytes = uuidParse('6ec0bd7f-11c0-43da-975e-2a8ad9ebae0b');

// Convert to hex strings to show byte order (for documentation purposes)
[...bytes].map((v) => v.toString(16).padStart(2, '0')); // ⇨ 
  // [
  //   '6e', 'c0', 'bd', '7f',
  //   '11', 'c0', '43', 'da',
  //   '97', '5e', '2a', '8a',
  //   'd9', 'eb', 'ae', '0b'
  // ]

uuid.stringify(arr[, offset])

Convert array of bytes to UUID string

Note: Ordering of values in the byte arrays used by parse() and stringify() follows the left ↠ right order of hex-pairs in UUID strings. As shown in the example below.

Example:

import { stringify as uuidStringify } from 'uuid';

const uuidBytes = [
  0x6e,
  0xc0,
  0xbd,
  0x7f,
  0x11,
  0xc0,
  0x43,
  0xda,
  0x97,
  0x5e,
  0x2a,
  0x8a,
  0xd9,
  0xeb,
  0xae,
  0x0b,
];

uuidStringify(uuidBytes); // ⇨ '6ec0bd7f-11c0-43da-975e-2a8ad9ebae0b'

uuid.v1([options[, buffer[, offset]]])

Create an RFC version 1 (timestamp) UUID

Note: The default node id (the last 12 digits in the UUID) is generated once, randomly, on process startup, and then remains unchanged for the duration of the process.

Note: options.random and options.rng are only meaningful on the very first call to v1(), where they may be passed to initialize the internal node and clockseq fields.

Example:

import { v1 as uuidv1 } from 'uuid';

uuidv1(); // ⇨ '2c5ea4c0-4067-11e9-8bad-9b1deb4d3b7d'

Example using options:

import { v1 as uuidv1 } from 'uuid';

const v1options = {
  node: [0x01, 0x23, 0x45, 0x67, 0x89, 0xab],
  clockseq: 0x1234,
  msecs: new Date('2011-11-01').getTime(),
  nsecs: 5678,
};
uuidv1(v1options); // ⇨ '710b962e-041c-11e1-9234-0123456789ab'

uuid.v3(name, namespace[, buffer[, offset]])

Create an RFC version 3 (namespace w/ MD5) UUID

API is identical to v5(), but uses "v3" instead.

⚠️ Note: Per the RFC, "If backward compatibility is not an issue, SHA-1 [Version 5] is preferred."

uuid.v4([options[, buffer[, offset]]])

Create an RFC version 4 (random) UUID

Example:

import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';

uuidv4(); // ⇨ '1b9d6bcd-bbfd-4b2d-9b5d-ab8dfbbd4bed'

Example using predefined random values:

import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';

const v4options = {
  random: [
    0x10,
    0x91,
    0x56,
    0xbe,
    0xc4,
    0xfb,
    0xc1,
    0xea,
    0x71,
    0xb4,
    0xef,
    0xe1,
    0x67,
    0x1c,
    0x58,
    0x36,
  ],
};
uuidv4(v4options); // ⇨ '109156be-c4fb-41ea-b1b4-efe1671c5836'

uuid.v5(name, namespace[, buffer[, offset]])

Create an RFC version 5 (namespace w/ SHA-1) UUID

Note: The RFC DNS and URL namespaces are available as v5.DNS and v5.URL.

Example with custom namespace:

import { v5 as uuidv5 } from 'uuid';

// Define a custom namespace.  Readers, create your own using something like
// https://www.uuidgenerator.net/
const MY_NAMESPACE = '1b671a64-40d5-491e-99b0-da01ff1f3341';

uuidv5('Hello, World!', MY_NAMESPACE); // ⇨ '630eb68f-e0fa-5ecc-887a-7c7a62614681'

Example with RFC URL namespace:

import { v5 as uuidv5 } from 'uuid';

uuidv5('https://www.w3.org/', uuidv5.URL); // ⇨ 'c106a26a-21bb-5538-8bf2-57095d1976c1'

uuid.validate(str)

Test a string to see if it is a valid UUID

Example:

import { validate as uuidValidate } from 'uuid';

uuidValidate('not a UUID'); // ⇨ false
uuidValidate('6ec0bd7f-11c0-43da-975e-2a8ad9ebae0b'); // ⇨ true

Using validate and version together it is possible to do per-version validation, e.g. validate for only v4 UUIds.

import { version as uuidVersion } from 'uuid';
import { validate as uuidValidate } from 'uuid';

function uuidValidateV4(uuid) {
  return uuidValidate(uuid) && uuidVersion(uuid) === 4;
}

const v1Uuid = 'd9428888-122b-11e1-b85c-61cd3cbb3210';
const v4Uuid = '109156be-c4fb-41ea-b1b4-efe1671c5836';

uuidValidateV4(v4Uuid); // ⇨ true
uuidValidateV4(v1Uuid); // ⇨ false

uuid.version(str)

Detect RFC version of a UUID

Example:

import { version as uuidVersion } from 'uuid';

uuidVersion('45637ec4-c85f-11ea-87d0-0242ac130003'); // ⇨ 1
uuidVersion('6ec0bd7f-11c0-43da-975e-2a8ad9ebae0b'); // ⇨ 4

Command Line

UUIDs can be generated from the command line using uuid.

$ uuid
ddeb27fb-d9a0-4624-be4d-4615062daed4

The default is to generate version 4 UUIDS, however the other versions are supported. Type uuid --help for details:

$ uuid --help

Usage:
  uuid
  uuid v1
  uuid v3 <name> <namespace uuid>
  uuid v4
  uuid v5 <name> <namespace uuid>
  uuid --help

Note: <namespace uuid> may be "URL" or "DNS" to use the corresponding UUIDs
defined by RFC4122

ECMAScript Modules

This library comes with ECMAScript Modules (ESM) support for Node.js versions that support it (example) as well as bundlers like rollup.js (example) and webpack (example) (targeting both, Node.js and browser environments).

import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';
uuidv4(); // ⇨ '1b9d6bcd-bbfd-4b2d-9b5d-ab8dfbbd4bed'

To run the examples you must first create a dist build of this library in the module root:

npm run build

CDN Builds

ECMAScript Modules

To load this module directly into modern browsers that support loading ECMAScript Modules you can make use of jspm:

<script type="module">
  import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'https://jspm.dev/uuid';
  console.log(uuidv4()); // ⇨ '1b9d6bcd-bbfd-4b2d-9b5d-ab8dfbbd4bed'
</script>

UMD

To load this module directly into older browsers you can use the UMD (Universal Module Definition) builds from any of the following CDNs:

Using UNPKG:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/uuid@latest/dist/umd/uuidv4.min.js"></script>

Using jsDelivr:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/uuid@latest/dist/umd/uuidv4.min.js"></script>

Using cdnjs:

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/uuid/8.1.0/uuidv4.min.js"></script>

These CDNs all provide the same uuidv4() method:

<script>
  uuidv4(); // ⇨ '55af1e37-0734-46d8-b070-a1e42e4fc392'
</script>

Methods for the other algorithms (uuidv1(), uuidv3() and uuidv5()) are available from the files uuidv1.min.js, uuidv3.min.js and uuidv5.min.js respectively.

"getRandomValues() not supported"

This error occurs in environments where the standard crypto.getRandomValues() API is not supported. This issue can be resolved by adding an appropriate polyfill:

React Native / Expo

1. Install react-native-get-random-values
2. Import it before uuid. Since uuid might also appear as a transitive dependency of some other imports it's safest to just import react-native-get-random-values as the very first thing in your entry point:

import 'react-native-get-random-values';
import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';

Note: If you are using Expo, you must be using at least [email protected] and [email protected].

Web Workers / Service Workers (Edge <= 18)

In Edge <= 18, Web Crypto is not supported in Web Workers or Service Workers and we are not aware of a polyfill (let us know if you find one, please).

Upgrading From [email protected]

Only Named Exports Supported When Using with Node.js ESM

[email protected] did not come with native ECMAScript Module (ESM) support for Node.js. Importing it in Node.js ESM consequently imported the CommonJS source with a default export. This library now comes with true Node.js ESM support and only provides named exports.

Instead of doing:

import uuid from 'uuid';
uuid.v4();

you will now have to use the named exports:

import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';
uuidv4();

Deep Requires No Longer Supported

Deep requires like require('uuid/v4') which have been deprecated in [email protected] are no longer supported.

Upgrading From [email protected]

"Wait... what happened to [email protected] - [email protected]?!?"

In order to avoid confusion with RFC version 4 and version 5 UUIDs, and a possible version 6, releases 4 thru 6 of this module have been skipped.

Deep Requires Now Deprecated

[email protected] encouraged the use of deep requires to minimize the bundle size of browser builds:

const uuidv4 = require('uuid/v4'); // <== NOW DEPRECATED!
uuidv4();

As of [email protected] this library now provides ECMAScript modules builds, which allow packagers like Webpack and Rollup to do "tree-shaking" to remove dead code. Instead, use the import syntax:

import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';
uuidv4();

... or for CommonJS:

const { v4: uuidv4 } = require('uuid');
uuidv4();

Default Export Removed

[email protected] was exporting the Version 4 UUID method as a default export:

const uuid = require('uuid'); // <== REMOVED!

This usage pattern was already discouraged in [email protected] and has been removed in [email protected].

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