I second the desire for a UUID type in PostgreSQL! I'm aware of the pguuid project, but it's not the same as having it in core and isn't very well maintained. This is such a common database paradigm that it seems reasonable to promote it to first-class citizen status in PostgreSQL. I currently use varchars for UUIDs, but the table size, index size, integrity (validation), and performance would be better if PostgreSQL supported UUIDs directly. On Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:31:26 -0700, "Patrick Earl" <patearl@xxxxxxxxxxx> said: > One issue is that UUIDs are only 16 bytes of data. To store the as > text in canonical form requires 36 bytes. As there are alternate > frequently used representations, you also run into potential issues > with input. The GUID type (proposed by Gevik) handles those standard > input variations. > > Though I haven't tried it, I would imagine there would be performance > implications when using 36 character keys everywhere to do indexing, > joins, etc. > > Another issue is that higher level languages (such as Delphi and .NET) > have GUID field types built in. If the field is just a string field, > it won't map nicely to those higher level types. > > Patrick > > On 1/17/07, Chad Wagner <chad.wagner@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On 1/17/07, Patrick Earl <patearl@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Certainly support for the GUID field type itself is most important. > > > As for the generators, though they are non-essential, they are very > > > useful. Other platforms and libraries have standardized on uuid > > > generators, so I don't see why PostgreSQL can't. > > > > Maybe I am oblivious to the reason, but why is there a need for a special > > data type for GUID/UUIDs? Wouldn't you always be doing an "equality" > > anyways? Wouldn't a varchar suffice? > > > > -- > > Chad > > http://www.postgresqlforums.com/ > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
