Neil Merton

Create A Neat UUID

For any seasoned ColdFusion developer you will be well aware of the CreateUUID() function in ColdFusion that generates a unique string.

Here’s something that I use on a regular basis, just to neaten up the generated string:

<cfset request.thisUUID = Replace(CreateUUID(), "-", "","ALL") />
 
<p><cfoutput>#request.thisUUID#</cfoutput></p>

This then produces a 32 digit string.

Another way of generating a custom uuid is:

<cfset request.dateUUID =
    "#DateFormat(Now(),'YYYYMMDD')##TimeFormat(Now(),'HHMMss')#" />
<cfset request.2digitUUID = RandRange(10,99) />
<cfset request.myUUID = "#request.dateUUID##request.2digitUUID#" />
 
<p><cfoutput>#request.myUUID#</cfoutput></p>

This then produces a 16 digit string. The thing I like about the above example is if it is used for say order id’s then just by looking at the UUID you know when it was made.