Python 3.6.5 Documentation >  "uuid" — UUID objects according to RFC 4122

"uuid" — UUID objects according to RFC 4122
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**Source code:** Lib/uuid.py

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This module provides immutable "UUID" objects (the "UUID" class) and
the functions "uuid1()", "uuid3()", "uuid4()", "uuid5()" for
generating version 1, 3, 4, and 5 UUIDs as specified in **RFC 4122**.

If all you want is a unique ID, you should probably call "uuid1()" or
"uuid4()". Note that "uuid1()" may compromise privacy since it
creates a UUID containing the computer’s network address. "uuid4()"
creates a random UUID.

class uuid.UUID(hex=None, bytes=None, bytes_le=None, fields=None, int=None, version=None)

Create a UUID from either a string of 32 hexadecimal digits, a
string of 16 bytes as the *bytes* argument, a string of 16 bytes in
little-endian order as the *bytes_le* argument, a tuple of six
integers (32-bit *time_low*, 16-bit *time_mid*, 16-bit
*time_hi_version*, 8-bit *clock_seq_hi_variant*, 8-bit
*clock_seq_low*, 48-bit *node*) as the *fields* argument, or a
single 128-bit integer as the *int* argument. When a string of hex
digits is given, curly braces, hyphens, and a URN prefix are all
optional. For example, these expressions all yield the same UUID:

UUID('{12345678-1234-5678-1234-567812345678}')
UUID('12345678123456781234567812345678')
UUID('urn:uuid:12345678-1234-5678-1234-567812345678')
UUID(bytes=b'\x12\x34\x56\x78'*4)
UUID(bytes_le=b'\x78\x56\x34\x12\x34\x12\x78\x56' +
b'\x12\x34\x56\x78\x12\x34\x56\x78')
UUID(fields=(0x12345678, 0x1234, 0x5678, 0x12, 0x34, 0x567812345678))
UUID(int=0x12345678123456781234567812345678)

Exactly one of *hex*, *bytes*, *bytes_le*, *fields*, or *int* must
be given. The *version* argument is optional; if given, the
resulting UUID will have its variant and version number set
according to RFC 4122, overriding bits in the given *hex*, *bytes*,
*bytes_le*, *fields*, or *int*.

Comparison of UUID objects are made by way of comparing their
"UUID.int" attributes. Comparison with a non-UUID object raises a
"TypeError".

"str(uuid)" returns a string in the form
"12345678-1234-5678-1234-567812345678" where the 32 hexadecimal
digits represent the UUID.

"UUID" instances have these read-only attributes:

UUID.bytes

The UUID as a 16-byte string (containing the six integer fields in
big-endian byte order).

UUID.bytes_le

The UUID as a 16-byte string (with *time_low*, *time_mid*, and
*time_hi_version* in little-endian byte order).

UUID.fields

A tuple of the six integer fields of the UUID, which are also
available as six individual attributes and two derived attributes:

+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| Field | Meaning |
+================================+=================================+
| "time_low" | the first 32 bits of the UUID |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| "time_mid" | the next 16 bits of the UUID |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| "time_hi_version" | the next 16 bits of the UUID |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| "clock_seq_hi_variant" | the next 8 bits of the UUID |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| "clock_seq_low" | the next 8 bits of the UUID |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| "node" | the last 48 bits of the UUID |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| "time" | the 60-bit timestamp |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| "clock_seq" | the 14-bit sequence number |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------+

UUID.hex

The UUID as a 32-character hexadecimal string.

UUID.int

The UUID as a 128-bit integer.

UUID.urn

The UUID as a URN as specified in RFC 4122.

UUID.variant

The UUID variant, which determines the internal layout of the UUID.
This will be one of the constants "RESERVED_NCS", "RFC_4122",
"RESERVED_MICROSOFT", or "RESERVED_FUTURE".

UUID.version

The UUID version number (1 through 5, meaningful only when the
variant is "RFC_4122").

The "uuid" module defines the following functions:

uuid.getnode()

Get the hardware address as a 48-bit positive integer. The first
time this runs, it may launch a separate program, which could be
quite slow. If all attempts to obtain the hardware address fail,
we choose a random 48-bit number with its eighth bit set to 1 as
recommended in RFC 4122. “Hardware address” means the MAC address
of a network interface, and on a machine with multiple network
interfaces the MAC address of any one of them may be returned.

uuid.uuid1(node=None, clock_seq=None)

Generate a UUID from a host ID, sequence number, and the current
time. If *node* is not given, "getnode()" is used to obtain the
hardware address. If *clock_seq* is given, it is used as the
sequence number; otherwise a random 14-bit sequence number is
chosen.

uuid.uuid3(namespace, name)

Generate a UUID based on the MD5 hash of a namespace identifier
(which is a UUID) and a name (which is a string).

uuid.uuid4()

Generate a random UUID.

uuid.uuid5(namespace, name)

Generate a UUID based on the SHA-1 hash of a namespace identifier
(which is a UUID) and a name (which is a string).

The "uuid" module defines the following namespace identifiers for use
with "uuid3()" or "uuid5()".

uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS

When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is a fully-
qualified domain name.

uuid.NAMESPACE_URL

When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is a URL.

uuid.NAMESPACE_OID

When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is an ISO OID.

uuid.NAMESPACE_X500

When this namespace is specified, the *name* string is an X.500 DN
in DER or a text output format.

The "uuid" module defines the following constants for the possible
values of the "variant" attribute:

uuid.RESERVED_NCS

Reserved for NCS compatibility.

uuid.RFC_4122

Specifies the UUID layout given in **RFC 4122**.

uuid.RESERVED_MICROSOFT

Reserved for Microsoft compatibility.

uuid.RESERVED_FUTURE

Reserved for future definition.

See also:

**RFC 4122** - A Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) URN Namespace
This specification defines a Uniform Resource Name namespace for
UUIDs, the internal format of UUIDs, and methods of generating
UUIDs.


Example
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Here are some examples of typical usage of the "uuid" module:

>>> import uuid

>>> # make a UUID based on the host ID and current time
>>> uuid.uuid1()
UUID('a8098c1a-f86e-11da-bd1a-00112444be1e')

>>> # make a UUID using an MD5 hash of a namespace UUID and a name
>>> uuid.uuid3(uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS, 'python.org')
UUID('6fa459ea-ee8a-3ca4-894e-db77e160355e')

>>> # make a random UUID
>>> uuid.uuid4()
UUID('16fd2706-8baf-433b-82eb-8c7fada847da')

>>> # make a UUID using a SHA-1 hash of a namespace UUID and a name
>>> uuid.uuid5(uuid.NAMESPACE_DNS, 'python.org')
UUID('886313e1-3b8a-5372-9b90-0c9aee199e5d')

>>> # make a UUID from a string of hex digits (braces and hyphens ignored)
>>> x = uuid.UUID('{00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f}')

>>> # convert a UUID to a string of hex digits in standard form
>>> str(x)
'00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f'

>>> # get the raw 16 bytes of the UUID
>>> x.bytes
b'\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08\t\n\x0b\x0c\r\x0e\x0f'

>>> # make a UUID from a 16-byte string
>>> uuid.UUID(bytes=x.bytes)
UUID('00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f')