How can I use UUIDs in SQLAlchemy?

Question

Is there a way to define a column (primary key) as a UUID in SQLAlchemy if using PostgreSQL (Postgres)?

Answer 1

Here is an approach based on the Backend agnostic GUID from the SQLAlchemy docs, but using a BINARY field to store the UUIDs in non-postgresql databases.

import uuid

from sqlalchemy.types import TypeDecorator, BINARY
from sqlalchemy.dialects.postgresql import UUID as psqlUUID

class UUID(TypeDecorator):
    """Platform-independent GUID type.

    Uses Postgresql's UUID type, otherwise uses
    BINARY(16), to store UUID.

    """
    impl = BINARY

    def load_dialect_impl(self, dialect):
        if dialect.name == 'postgresql':
            return dialect.type_descriptor(psqlUUID())
        else:
            return dialect.type_descriptor(BINARY(16))

    def process_bind_param(self, value, dialect):
        if value is None:
            return value
        else:
            if not isinstance(value, uuid.UUID):
                if isinstance(value, bytes):
                    value = uuid.UUID(bytes=value)
                elif isinstance(value, int):
                    value = uuid.UUID(int=value)
                elif isinstance(value, str):
                    value = uuid.UUID(value)
        if dialect.name == 'postgresql':
            return str(value)
        else:
            return value.bytes

    def process_result_value(self, value, dialect):
        if value is None:
            return value
        if dialect.name == 'postgresql':
            return uuid.UUID(value)
        else:
            return uuid.UUID(bytes=value)