uuid-ossp

generate universally unique identifiers (UUIDs)

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/uuid-ossp.html

Overview

Package	Version	Category	License	Language
`uuid-ossp`	`1.1`	FUNC	PostgreSQL	C

ID	Extension	Bin	Lib	Load	Create	Trust	Reloc	Schema
4930	`uuid-ossp`	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	-

Related	`pg_idkit` `pgx_ulid` `pg_uuidv7` `pg_hashids` `sequential_uuids` `permuteseq` `ddsketch` `vasco`
Depended By	`babelfishpg_tsql`

Version

PG18	PG17	PG16	PG15	PG14
1.1	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.1

Install

Note: This is a built-in contrib extension of PostgreSQL

CREATE EXTENSION uuid-ossp;

Usage

uuid-ossp: UUID generation functions

Provides functions to generate UUIDs using several standard algorithms. Note: for simple random UUIDs, consider using the built-in gen_random_uuid() instead.

CREATE EXTENSION "uuid-ossp";

UUID Generation Functions

Function	Description
`uuid_generate_v1()`	Version 1: MAC address + timestamp
`uuid_generate_v1mc()`	Version 1 with random multicast MAC
`uuid_generate_v3(namespace uuid, name text)`	Version 3: MD5 hash of namespace + name
`uuid_generate_v4()`	Version 4: fully random
`uuid_generate_v5(namespace uuid, name text)`	Version 5: SHA-1 hash of namespace + name (preferred over v3)

Namespace Constants

Function	Description
`uuid_nil()`	Nil UUID (all zeros)
`uuid_ns_dns()`	DNS namespace
`uuid_ns_url()`	URL namespace
`uuid_ns_oid()`	ISO OID namespace
`uuid_ns_x500()`	X.500 DN namespace

Examples

-- Random UUID (v4)
SELECT uuid_generate_v4();

-- Timestamp-based UUID (v1)
SELECT uuid_generate_v1();

-- Deterministic UUID from name (v5, preferred over v3)
SELECT uuid_generate_v5(uuid_ns_url(), 'http://www.postgresql.org');

-- Use as default primary key
CREATE TABLE items (
  id uuid DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4() PRIMARY KEY,
  name text
);

Feedback

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for the feedback! Please let us know how we can improve.

Sorry to hear that. Please let us know how we can improve.

Last Modified 2026-03-12: add pg extension catalog (95749bf)