Generate a UUID on iOS from Swift

This article will explain to you what is the UUID in iOS and how to generate it in the Swift language. You will see some practical situations in which UUID is useful in the iOS application.

What is UUID?

A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a string of characters that is guaranteed to be unique across all devices and at all times. UUIDs are often used to uniquely identify resources, such as database records or files.

In iOS, UUIDs can be used for a variety of purposes. Some common use cases for UUIDs in iOS include −

• Identifying app-specific files or directories in the file system

• Identifying user preferences or settings

• Identifying records in a database

• Identifying in-app purchases or subscriptions

• Identifying push notification tokens or other types of device tokens

What is the UUID made up of?

UUIDs are made up of a series of hexadecimal digits and are usually presented in five groups separated by hyphens. For example,

E621E1F8-C36C-495A-93FC-0C247A3E6E5F

There are several different versions of UUIDs, each of which uses a different algorithm to generate the unique identifier. The most common version is known as "version 4" UUIDs, which are generated using random numbers.

To generate a UUID in iOS, you can use the UUID class as described in the previous answer. You can then use the resulting UUID string as a unique identifier for your app's resources.

To generate a universally unique identifier (UUID) in Swift, you can use the UUID class −

import Foundation
let uuid = UUID()
let uuidString = uuid.uuidString
print("UUID String: \(uuidString)")

Output

UUID String: 87AF5680-067C-4B69-8DD6-33F1F4ECC584

Explanation

The uuidString property of the UUID instance will give you a string representation of the UUID. Note that the UUID class is part of the Foundation framework, so you'll need to import it at the top of your file.

Conclusion

Generating UUID in the Swift language is very easy and useful in the iOS application. You can use the UUID string as a token for a different purpose. It always gives you a unique identifier.