How to generate a UUIDv4 in MySQL?

Question

MySQL\'s UUID function returns a UUIDv1 GUID. I\'m looking for an easy way to generate random GUIDs (i.e. UUIDv4) in SQL.

Answer 1

In the off chance you're working with a DB and don't have perms to create functions, here's the same version as above that works just as a SQL expression:

SELECT LOWER(CONCAT(
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0xffff)), 4, '0'), 
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0xffff)), 4, '0'), '-',
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0xffff)), 4, '0'), '-', 
    '4',
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0x0fff)), 3, '0'), '-', 
    HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 4 + 8)), 
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0x0fff)), 3, '0'), '-', 
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0xffff)), 4, '0'),
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0xffff)), 4, '0'),
    LPAD(HEX(FLOOR(RAND() * 0xffff)), 4, '0')));