Hey nice ULIDs :)

What? I don't get paid for professional jokes!

ULIDs? Eyelids? Oh, come on people!

I have worked with GUIDs in code for many years. The idea is, instead of a sequence of say, integers or numeric values, you have a sequence a bit like:

123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000

Okay, what on earth is this, and why should I care?

Well, if you work in code or databases, a GUID can be used as a unique identifier, say for a customer record. In a lot of systems, you may see a straight numeric “integer” value like 185673737.

The advantage of a GUID is there is almost no chance of a collision, or, in other words, no chance that the same GUID could be generated twice.

This is especially true if you restore a database that had auto-increment IDs :)

Okay, so GUIDs are good then? yes they are! They are not the only option for this type of thing; however, they have one main drawback.

A GUID cannot be sorted.

But, fear not, as I can practically hear you anticipating the next bit ;)

ULIDs will solve that problem!

ULID stands for Universally Unique Lexographically Sortable Identifier.

Neat, eh?

So, you get a GUID type of identifier, but it can also be sorted which in databases can be a big thing of course.

Will ULIDs change your life? damn right they will! - if you are a coder or database person!

Well, some of us are easily pleased, and I found this to be a new’ish thing to me or dare I say a re-remembering as I am getting older :)

Thats all folks for now, take care.