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gn_uuid_examples

Examples of UUID v5 generation with globalnames.org namespace

UUID are very popular global unique identifiers. For most practical purposes they guarantee to be unique and as such allow everybody generate them without fear of having the same UUID appearing by mistake.

There are several versions of UUID generation, they are all described in RFC-4122. UUID version 5 uses SHA-1 hashing algorithm to convert a string into UUID unambiguously. To prevent UUID clashes v5 uses a namespace as a seed for the hash generation. As a result every sting can be assigned an identifier which can be created independently and unambiguously by anybody.

GlobalNames initiative uses UUID version 5 to make it possible to determine identifiers for name strings via algorithm. Such identifiers can be created automatically and do not require looking them up or internet connection.

This repository is show examples how to create unambiguous UUID version 5 identifiers using different languages.

Namespace

To create UUID version five it is necessary to create a namespace UUID. in GlobalNames context this id is equal "90181196-fecf-5082-a4c1-411d4f314cda

If algorithm works correctly and a developer uses UUID above -- the result will always be the same. For example name string "Homo sapiens" must generate UUID "16f235a0-e4a3-529c-9b83-bd15fe722110"

All examples below should generate identical output:

Scientific name: Homo sapiens
GlobalNames UUID: 16f235a0-e4a3-529c-9b83-bd15fe722110

Please note that you might need to install corresponding languages to be able to run the examples

Go Language example

Change to go directory

cd go

Get uuid package

go get github.com/satori/go.uuid

Build go executable

go build gn_uuid.go

Run compiled example

./gn_uuid "Homo sapiens"

Java example

To make working Java example go to java direcotry

cd java

Compile java code

javac -cp commons-id.jar GlobalNamesUUID.java

Then run example with

java -cp commons-id.jar:. GlobalNamesUUID "Homo sapiens"

PHP example

Go to php directory

cd php

Run example with

php gn_uuid.php "Homo sapiens"

Python example

Go to python directory

cd python

Run example with

./gn_uuid.py "Homo sapiens"

Ruby example

Go to ruby directory

cd ruby

Execute example with

./gn_uuid.rb "Homo sapiens"