How to create a GUID/UUID in Python

Question

How do I create a GUID in Python that is platform independent? I hear there is a method using ActivePython on Windows but it\'s Windows only because it uses COM. Is there a

Answer 1

I use GUIDs as random keys for database type operations.

The hexadecimal form, with the dashes and extra characters seem unnecessarily long to me. But I also like that strings representing hexadecimal numbers are very safe in that they do not contain characters that can cause problems in some situations such as '+','=', etc..

Instead of hexadecimal, I use a url-safe base64 string. The following does not conform to any UUID/GUID spec though (other than having the required amount of randomness).

import base64
import uuid

# get a UUID - URL safe, Base64
def get_a_uuid():
    r_uuid = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(uuid.uuid4().bytes)
    return r_uuid.replace('=', '')