You Don't Need UUID • Hacker News Board

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#21

Post by eternityforest » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

hot_gril wrote: post #10

iaaan wrote: post #3

The crux of this argument seems to be that UUIDs are too long? Which I disagree with. I can't memorize them, no, and it would be cumbersome to try to say one aloud, but these aren't situations I've ever found myself in. Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter?

It matters aesthetically. A huge site like Amazon might care about that, otherwise it's not a high priority.

It somewhat matters aesthetically, but mostly people are going to ignore long random strings.

UUIDs are at least visually kind of white noise, companies have no problem+with+links?that=look&like=this, so why do they care about UUIDs?

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#22

Post by mccrory » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

Best part is watching the video and seeing the guy dance at the end over doing it in a single take.

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#23

Post by appletrotter » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

richbell wrote: post #11

iaaan wrote: post #3

The crux of this argument seems to be that UUIDs are too long? Which I disagree with. I can't memorize them, no, and it would be cumbersome to try to say one aloud, but these aren't situations I've ever found myself in. Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter?

> Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter? Yes. That's one of the author's arguments. ) A simple ID like 3c6n63N is more than enough to represent any product while keeping it readable and making communication easier. A UUID alternative like a73ba12d-1d8b-2516-3aee-4b15e563a835 is just wasteful from an user’s perspective.

Maybe it’s one if the author’s arguments, but that doesn’t mean the author is right.

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#24

Post by srameshc » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

Read this as I was about to use uuid for id :/

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#25

Post by nwah1 » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

I recently found ULID.

I like its simplicity. It is sequential. It has a very low probability of collision. And it is of a more reasonable length.

Because it encodes the time, theoretically you could use it to grab the CreatedDate of a record without a need for another field.

https://github.com/ulid/spec

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#26

Post by lifechoseme123 » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:26 PM UTC

You don't need to tell me I don't need UUID

...because I am going to keep using uuid

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#27

Post by NBJack » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:27 PM UTC

richbell wrote: post #11

iaaan wrote: post #3

The crux of this argument seems to be that UUIDs are too long? Which I disagree with. I can't memorize them, no, and it would be cumbersome to try to say one aloud, but these aren't situations I've ever found myself in. Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter?

> Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter? Yes. That's one of the author's arguments. ) A simple ID like 3c6n63N is more than enough to represent any product while keeping it readable and making communication easier. A UUID alternative like a73ba12d-1d8b-2516-3aee-4b15e563a835 is just wasteful from an user’s perspective.

There is the rub. Readable for what purpose? Aesthetics? And why? It is meaningless in their example.

And what do they mean with communication? Reading it aloud? If the URL is too long to stick in a tweet or message, there are plenty of URL shorteners out there.

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#28

Post by emodendroket » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:28 PM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #18

iaaan wrote: post #3

The crux of this argument seems to be that UUIDs are too long? Which I disagree with. I can't memorize them, no, and it would be cumbersome to try to say one aloud, but these aren't situations I've ever found myself in. Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter?

> Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter? No, it doesn't. If you're using a central system to generate id's (UUID's or other), then you are indeed missing a lot of the benefits of UUID's and might as well use some other ID scheme. The benefits of UUID are many systems can generate them, and your database can eventually accept them, all with a very high guarantee of uniqueness/no-collis…

That’s an excellent point; that can end up being a bottleneck across many systems.

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#29

Post by kolanos » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:28 PM UTC

You don't "need" them, but they're almost universally understood and supported which makes them super convenient and a good starting point for many use cases. The point in which the "wasteful" nature of a UUUID really bites you is so far down the road that it is almost not even worth thinking about until you get there. Chances are you won't be dealing in petabytes at all and the 64 bit savings you are fretting over doesn't really matter.

Re: You Don't Need UUID

#30

Post by richbell » Mon, Sep 11, 2023, 5:28 PM UTC

appletrotter wrote: post #23

richbell wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does it make the URL in the URL bar longer? Yeah, but does that matter? Yes. That's one of the author's arguments. ) A simple ID like 3c6n63N is more than enough to represent any product while keeping it readable and making communication easier. A UUID alternative like a73ba12d-1d8b-2516-3aee-4b15e563a835 is just wasteful from an user’s perspective.

Maybe it’s one if the author’s arguments, but that doesn’t mean the author is right.

Sure — it's just a weird question to pose when the author specifically provides their opinion on it. It'd be different to say "I don't think it matters".