UUID format: 8-4-4-4-12 - Why?

Question

Why are UUID\'s presented in the format \"8-4-4-4-12\" (digits)? I\'ve had a look around for the reason but can\'t find the decision that calls for it.

Example of UU

Answer 1

The format is defined in IETF RFC4122 in section 3. The output format is defined where it says "UUID = ..."

3.- Namespace Registration Template

Namespace ID: UUID Registration Information: Registration date: 2003-10-01

Declared registrant of the namespace: JTC 1/SC6 (ASN.1 Rapporteur Group)

Declaration of syntactic structure: A UUID is an identifier that is unique across both space and time, with respect to the space of all UUIDs. Since a UUID is a fixed size and contains a time field, it is possible for values to rollover (around A.D. 3400, depending on the specific algorithm used). A UUID can be used for multiple purposes, from tagging objects with an extremely short lifetime, to reliably identifying very persistent objects across a network.

  The internal representation of a UUID is a specific sequence of
  bits in memory, as described in Section 4.  To accurately
  represent a UUID as a URN, it is necessary to convert the bit
  sequence to a string representation.

  Each field is treated as an integer and has its value printed as a
  zero-filled hexadecimal digit string with the most significant
  digit first.  The hexadecimal values "a" through "f" are output as
  lower case characters and are case insensitive on input.

  The formal definition of the UUID string representation is
  provided by the following ABNF [7]:

  UUID                   = time-low "-" time-mid "-"
                           time-high-and-version "-"
                           clock-seq-and-reserved
                           clock-seq-low "-" node
  time-low               = 4hexOctet
  time-mid               = 2hexOctet
  time-high-and-version  = 2hexOctet
  clock-seq-and-reserved = hexOctet
  clock-seq-low          = hexOctet
  node                   = 6hexOctet
  hexOctet               = hexDigit hexDigit
  hexDigit =
        "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" / "6" / "7" / "8" / "9" /
        "a" / "b" / "c" / "d" / "e" / "f" /
        "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F"