Developers use globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) for various reasons, such as assigning unique
identifiers to classes or when dealing with databases. GUIDs are the
Microsoft implementation of the distributed computing environment (DCE)
universally unique identifier (UUID). GUIDs
are 128-bit globally unique identifiers that are automatically generated based
on close to two zillion frequently varying factors.
There is an extremely low possibility that the value of GUID
would be all zeroes, or that it would be equal to any other GUID. You can use GUIDs across all computers and networks wherever a unique
identifier is required.
GUIDs identify objects such as
interfaces and class objects. A GUID consists of one group of 8 hexadecimal
digits, followed by three groups of 4 hexadecimal digits each, which are
followed by one group of 12 hexadecimal digits.
In the following script, I
manually generate the GUID that I can use later in the application by using
VB.NET:
Private Sub GenerateGUID()
Dim sGUID As String
sGUID = System.Guid.NewGuid.ToString()
MessageBox.Show(sGUID)
End Sub
In the example, I define a string variable, sGUID, to hold a
GUID that I will generate. Then I set the value of sGUID to the value returned by
the System.Guid.NewGuid
method (using the System.Guid
namespace) and convert the result to a string using ToString(). The result is displayed in a message
box.
Note: Visual
Studio .NET allows you to easily generate GUID interactively by running the
Visual Studio .NET Command Prompt. For more details, visit the MSDN
site. Another resource to check out is the TechRepublic
article, “Generating
and working with GUIDs in .NET.”
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