UUID vs GUID: Differences and Compatibility
Compare UUID and GUID: format differences, Microsoft vs IETF standards, case sensitivity, and database compatibility considerations.
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Tags: developer-tools, uuid, guid
UUID vs GUID: Differences, Compatibility, and When to Use Each If you have spent any time in cross-platform development, you have seen both "UUID" and "GUID" in documentation, APIs, and database schemas. The short answer: they refer to the same thing. The longer answer involves a bit of history, some formatting quirks, and a few practical differences in how each ecosystem expresses the concept. --- The Short Answer UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) is defined by RFC 4122 (now superseded by RFC 9562). GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) is Microsoft's term for the same concept, introduced with COM (Component Object Model) in the early 1990s. Both are 128-bit identifiers. Both follow the same structure. A GUID generated by Windows and a UUID generated by a Linux system are interchangeable…
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