Generate a UUID in Go

How to Generate a UUID in Go

Although the Go programming language itself does not have built-in support for generating a UUID or GUID, there are quality 3rd party, open-source packages that you can use instead.

The Go package we recommend for generating UUIDs is called, go.uuid. It can generate Version 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 UUIDs.

Installing the go.uuid Package

To get started with the package, you'll need to install it. You can do this with the go command:

% go get github.com/satori/go.uuid

Generating UUIDs

With the go.uuid package installed, you can now use it in your Go code.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"github.com/satori/go.uuid"
)

func main() {
  myuuid, err := uuid.NewV4()
  fmt.Println("Your UUID is: %s", myuuid)
}

Explanation

• Line #5 imports the go.uuid package, providing access to the uuid object.
• Line #9 generates the Version 4 UUID and saves it in the variable, myuuid.
• The output from line #10 will be something like:

  Your UUID is: 83064af3-bb81-4514-a6d4-afba340825cd
  

The go.uuid package has a number of other functions, such as for converting from a string representation of a UUID into a byte slice and back. You can read more about the Go UUID package on its GoDoc project page.

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