How to generate a GUID in Oracle?

Is it possible to auto-generate a GUID into an Insert statement?

Also, what type of field should I use to store this GUID?

Solution 1:

You can use the SYS_GUID() function to generate a GUID in your insert statement:

insert into mytable (guid_col, data) values (sys_guid(), 'xxx');

The preferred datatype for storing GUIDs is RAW(16).

As Gopinath answer:

 select sys_guid() from dual
 union all
 select sys_guid() from dual
 union all 
 select sys_guid() from dual

You get

88FDC68C75DDF955E040449808B55601
88FDC68C75DEF955E040449808B55601
88FDC68C75DFF955E040449808B55601

As Tony Andrews says, differs only at one character

88FDC68C75DDF955E040449808B55601
88FDC68C75DEF955E040449808B55601
88FDC68C75DFF955E040449808B55601

Maybe useful: http://feuerthoughts.blogspot.com/2006/02/watch-out-for-sequential-oracle-guids.html

Solution 2:

You can also include the guid in the create statement of the table as default, for example:

create table t_sysguid
( id     raw(16) default sys_guid() primary key
, filler varchar2(1000)
)
/

See here: http://rwijk.blogspot.com/2009/12/sysguid.html

Solution 3:

Example found on: http://www.orafaq.com/usenet/comp.databases.oracle.server/2006/12/20/0646.htm

SELECT REGEXP_REPLACE(SYS_GUID(), '(.{8})(.{4})(.{4})(.{4})(.{12})', '\1-\2-\3-\4-\5') MSSQL_GUID  FROM DUAL 

Result:

6C7C9A50-3514-4E77-E053-B30210AC1082 

Solution 4:

It is not clear what you mean by auto-generate a guid into an insert statement but at a guess, I think you are trying to do something like the following:

INSERT INTO MY_TAB (ID, NAME) VALUES (SYS_GUID(), 'Adams');
INSERT INTO MY_TAB (ID, NAME) VALUES (SYS_GUID(), 'Baker');

In that case I believe the ID column should be declared as RAW(16);

I am doing this off the top of my head. I don't have an Oracle instance handy to test against, but I think that is what you want.

Solution 5:

sys_guid() is a poor option, as other answers have mentioned. One way to generate UUIDs and avoid sequential values is to generate random hex strings yourself:

select regexp_replace(
    to_char(
        DBMS_RANDOM.value(0, power(2, 128)-1),
        'FM0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'),
    '([a-f0-9]{8})([a-f0-9]{4})([a-f0-9]{4})([a-f0-9]{4})([a-f0-9]{12})',
    '\1-\2-\3-\4-\5') from DUAL;