Swift Programming Tutorial: UUID

Quickly Understand UUID in Swift

Photo by Ethan Wilkinson on Unsplash

UUIDs are the geeky guardians of uniqueness. Whether you’re keeping track of users, tasks, or high scores in your next-gen Swift app, UUIDs are here to make your life easier. They’re like digital fingerprints: unique, reliable, and ready to save you from the chaos of duplicate data.

This article is part of my Swift Programming Tutorial series.

What Is a UUID?

A UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is a 128-bit identifier designed to be so unique that it’s almost impossible for two to be the same. When you generate one, it’s like rolling 36-character dice, where the odds of hitting the same result twice are astronomical.

Here’s what a UUID looks like:

E3BBE4F0-3A71-4597-A8FA-711D9EF8C54A

Not quite poetry, but beautiful in its own way. It’s divided into chunks by hyphens for readability. Swift handles all the heavy lifting of generating and managing UUIDs so you don’t need to memorize how those chunks work — just use them.

Why Use UUIDs in Swift?

UUIDs are perfect when you need to assign unique identifiers that work across devices, servers, or databases without the risk of duplication. Swift makes it…