UUID
UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is a 128-bit identifier standard used to uniquely label information in computer systems, ensuring global uniqueness without central coordination. It is commonly represented as a 32-character hexadecimal string, typically displayed in five groups separated by hyphens (e.g., 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000). UUIDs are widely employed for generating unique keys in databases, tracking resources in distributed systems, and identifying objects in software applications.
Developers should use UUIDs when they need to generate unique identifiers across distributed systems or independent components without a central authority, such as in microservices architectures, database primary keys, or file naming. They are particularly valuable for avoiding collisions in large-scale applications, ensuring data integrity in replication scenarios, and simplifying ID generation in offline or disconnected environments.