How should I store GUID in MySQL tables?
I would store it as a char(36).
Adding to the answer by ThaBadDawg, use these handy functions (thanks to a wiser collegue of mine) to get from 36 length string back to a byte array of 16.
DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION `GuidToBinary`(
$Data VARCHAR(36)
) RETURNS binary(16)
DETERMINISTIC
NO SQL
BEGIN
DECLARE $Result BINARY(16) DEFAULT NULL;
IF $Data IS NOT NULL THEN
SET $Data = REPLACE($Data,'-','');
SET $Result =
CONCAT( UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,7,2)), UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,5,2)),
UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,3,2)), UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,1,2)),
UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,11,2)),UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,9,2)),
UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,15,2)),UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,13,2)),
UNHEX(SUBSTRING($Data,17,16)));
END IF;
RETURN $Result;
END
$$
CREATE FUNCTION `ToGuid`(
$Data BINARY(16)
) RETURNS char(36) CHARSET utf8
DETERMINISTIC
NO SQL
BEGIN
DECLARE $Result CHAR(36) DEFAULT NULL;
IF $Data IS NOT NULL THEN
SET $Result =
CONCAT(
HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,4,1)), HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,3,1)),
HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,2,1)), HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,1,1)), '-',
HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,6,1)), HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,5,1)), '-',
HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,8,1)), HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,7,1)), '-',
HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,9,2)), '-', HEX(SUBSTRING($Data,11,6)));
END IF;
RETURN $Result;
END
$$
CHAR(16)
is actually a BINARY(16)
, choose your preferred flavour
To follow the code better, take the example given the digit-ordered GUID below. (Illegal characters are used for illustrative purposes - each place a unique character.) The functions will transform the byte ordering to achieve a bit order for superior index clustering. The reordered guid is shown below the example.
12345678-9ABC-DEFG-HIJK-LMNOPQRSTUVW
78563412-BC9A-FGDE-HIJK-LMNOPQRSTUVW
Dashes removed:
123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW
78563412BC9AFGDEHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW
My DBA asked me when I asked about the best way to store GUIDs for my objects why I needed to store 16 bytes when I could do the same thing in 4 bytes with an Integer. Since he put that challenge out there to me I thought now was a good time to mention it. That being said...
You can store a guid as a CHAR(16) binary if you want to make the most optimal use of storage space.
char(36) would be a good choice. Also MySQL's UUID() function can be used which returns a 36-character text format (hex with hyphens) which can be used for retrievals of such IDs from the db.