Elegant way to assign object id in Java

Question

I have a class for objects ... lat\'s say apples.

Each apple object mush have a unique identifier (id)... how do I ensure (elegantly and efficiently) that newly crea

Answer 1

Use java.util.UUID.randomUUID()

It is not int, but it is guaranteed to be unique:

A class that represents an immutable universally unique identifier (UUID).

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If your objects are somehow managed (for example by some persistence mechanism), it is often the case that the manager generates the IDs - taking the next id from the database, for example.

Related: Jeff Atwood's article on GUIDs (UUIDs). It is database-related, though, but it's not clear from your question whether you want your objects to be persisted or not.