How to validate Guid in .net
Guid's are unique 99.99999999999999999999999999999999% of the time.
It depends on what you mean by validate?
Code to determine that a Guid string is in fact a Guid, is as follows:
private static Regex isGuid =
new Regex(@"^(\{){0,1}[0-9a-fA-F]{8}\-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\-[0-9a-fA-F]{4}\-[0-9a-fA-F]{12}(\}){0,1}$", RegexOptions.Compiled);
internal static bool IsGuid(string candidate, out Guid output)
{
bool isValid = false;
output = Guid.Empty;
if(candidate != null)
{
if (isGuid.IsMatch(candidate))
{
output=new Guid(candidate);
isValid = true;
}
}
return isValid;
}
Here's a non-Regex answer that should be pretty fast:
public static bool IsHex(this char c)
{
return ((c >= '0' && c <= '9') || (c >= 'a' && c <= 'f') || (c >= 'A' && c <= 'F'));
}
public static bool IsGuid(this string s)
{
// Length of a proper GUID, without any surrounding braces.
const int len_without_braces = 36;
// Delimiter for GUID data parts.
const char delim = '-';
// Delimiter positions.
const int d_0 = 8;
const int d_1 = 13;
const int d_2 = 18;
const int d_3 = 23;
// Before Delimiter positions.
const int bd_0 = 7;
const int bd_1 = 12;
const int bd_2 = 17;
const int bd_3 = 22;
if (s == null)
return false;
if (s.Length != len_without_braces)
return false;
if (s[d_0] != delim ||
s[d_1] != delim ||
s[d_2] != delim ||
s[d_3] != delim)
return false;
for (int i = 0;
i < s.Length;
i = i + (i == bd_0 ||
i == bd_1 ||
i == bd_2 ||
i == bd_3
? 2 : 1))
{
if (!IsHex(s[i])) return false;
}
return true;
}
You cannot validate GUID's uniqueness. You just hope it was generated with a tool that produces unique 16 bytes. As for validation, this simple code might work (assuming you are dealing with GUID's string representation:
bool ValidateGuid(string theGuid)
{
try { Guid aG = new Guid(theGuid); }
catch { return false; }
return true;
}
2^128 is a very, very large number. It is a billion times larger than the number of picoseconds in the life of the universe. Too large by a long shot to ever validate, the answer is doomed to be "42". Which is the point of using them: you don't have to. If you worry about getting duplicates then you worry for the wrong reason. The odds your machine will be destroyed by a meteor impact are considerably larger.
Duck!