UUID Data Type

Stores universally unique identifiers (UUIDs). UUIDs are 16-byte (128-bit) numbers used to uniquely identify records. To generate UUIDs, Vertica provides the function UUID_GENERATE, which returns UUIDs based on high-quality randomness from /dev/urandom.

Syntax

UUID

UUID Input and Output Formats

UUIDs support input of case-insensitive string literal formats, as specified by RFC 4122. In general, a UUID is written as a sequence of hexadecimal digits, in several groups optionally separated by hyphens, for a total of 32 digits representing 128 bits.

The following input formats are valid:

6bbf0744-74b4-46b9-bb05-53905d4538e7
{6bbf0744-74b4-46b9-bb05-53905d4538e7}
6BBF074474B446B9BB0553905D4538E7
6BBf-0744-74B4-46B9-BB05-5390-5D45-38E7

On output, Vertica always uses the following format:

xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

For example, the following table defines column cust_id as a UUID:

=> CREATE TABLE public.Customers
(
    cust_id uuid,
    lname varchar(36),
    fname varchar(24)
);

The following input for cust_id uses several valid formats:

=>  COPY Customers FROM STDIN;
Enter data to be copied followed by a newline.
End with a backslash and a period on a line by itself.
>> {cede66b7-3d29-4da6-b700-871fc0ac57be}|Kearney|Thomas
>> 34462732ed5649838f3be735b0c32d50|Pham|Duc
>> 9fb0-1de0-1d63-4d09-9415-90e0-b4e9-3b9a|Steinberg|Jeremy
>> \.

On querying this table, Vertica formats all cust_id data in the same way:

=> SELECT cust_id, fname, lname FROM Customers;
                cust_id                | fname  |   lname
--------------------------------------+--------+-----------
 9fb01de0-1d63-4d09-9415-90e0b4e93b9a | Jeremy | Steinberg
 34462732-ed56-4983-8f3b-e735b0c32d50 | Duc    | Pham
 cede66b7-3d29-4da6-b700-871fc0ac57be | Thomas | Kearney
(3 rows)

Generating UUIDs

You can use the Vertica function UUID_GENERATE to automatically generate UUIDs that uniquely identify table records. For example:

=> INSERT INTO Customers SELECT UUID_GENERATE(),'Rostova','Natasha';
 OUTPUT
--------
      1
(1 row)

=> COMMIT;
COMMIT
=> SELECT cust_id, fname, lname FROM Customers;
               cust_id                |  fname  |   lname
--------------------------------------+---------+-----------
 9fb01de0-1d63-4d09-9415-90e0b4e93b9a | Jeremy  | Steinberg
 34462732-ed56-4983-8f3b-e735b0c32d50 | Duc     | Pham
 cede66b7-3d29-4da6-b700-871fc0ac57be | Thomas  | Kearney
 9aad6757-fe1b-473a-a109-b89b7b358c69 | Natasha | Rostova
(4 rows)

NULL Input and Output

The following string is reserved as NULL for UUID columns:

00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

Vertica always renders NULL as blank.

The following COPY statements insert NULL values into the UUID column, explicitly and implicitly:

=>  COPY Customers FROM STDIN NULL AS 'null';
Enter data to be copied followed by a newline.
End with a backslash and a period on a line by itself.
>> null|Doe|Jane
>> 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000|Man|Nowhere
>> \.
=>  COPY Customers FROM STDIN;
>> |Doe|John
>> \.

In all cases, Vertica renders NULL as blank:

=> SELECT cust_id, fname, lname FROM Customers WHERE cust_id IS NULL;
 cust_id |  fname  | lname
---------+---------+-------
         | Nowhere | Man
         | Jane    | Doe
         | John    | Doe
(3 rows)

Usage Restrictions