UUID Generator

Code guide

Generate UUIDs in Go

Generate UUIDs in Go with the google/uuid package, including UUID v4, UUID v7, parsing and validation.

By UUID GeneratorUpdated Reviewed for accuracy

Go has no UUID type in its standard library, so most projects use the widely trusted google/uuid package. It generates UUID v4 and, in recent versions, UUID v7, and it parses and validates strings cleanly.

Key takeaways

  • Use github.com/google/uuid for generation and parsing.
  • uuid.NewString() gives a random v4; NewV7() gives a time-ordered v7.
  • Parse untrusted input with uuid.Parse and handle the error.

Generate a UUID in Go

Install the package with go get github.com/google/uuid, then generate a random v4 or a time-ordered v7. NewString returns the canonical lowercase string directly.

package main

import (
    "fmt"

    "github.com/google/uuid"
)

func main() {
    v4 := uuid.NewString()      // random UUID v4
    v7, _ := uuid.NewV7()       // time-ordered UUID v7 (google/uuid v1.6+)
    fmt.Println(v4)
    fmt.Println(v7.String())
}

Parse and validate

Validate incoming identifiers by parsing them. uuid.Parse accepts hyphenated, URN and braced forms and returns an error for anything invalid, which is safer than a hand-written check.

id, err := uuid.Parse(input)
if err != nil {
    // reject invalid UUID
}
_ = id

FAQ

Generate UUIDs in Go questions

Does Go have a built-in UUID type?

No. The standard library has no UUID type, so most Go projects use the google/uuid package for generation, parsing and formatting.

Can Go generate UUID v7?

Yes. google/uuid v1.6 and later provide uuid.NewV7() for time-ordered identifiers.

Should I store Go UUIDs as text or bytes?

Use your database native UUID type where available. google/uuid can marshal to both text and 16-byte forms.

Generate UUID in Go - google/uuid Examples