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UUID Functions

UUID Generation Functions shows the PostgreSQL functions that can be used to generate UUIDs.

Table: UUID Generation Functions

Function	Description	Example(s)
`gen_random_uuid` ( ) `uuid`	`uuidv4` ( ) `uuid`	Generates a version 4 (random) UUID `gen_random_uuid()` `5b30857f-0bfa-48b5-ac0b-5c64e28078d1` `uuidv4()` `b42410ee-132f-42ee-9e4f-09a6485c95b8`
`uuidv7` ( [ `shift` `interval` ] ) `uuid`	Generates a version 7 (time-ordered) UUID. The timestamp is computed using UNIX timestamp with millisecond precision + sub-millisecond timestamp + random. The optional parameter `shift` will shift the computed timestamp by the given `interval`. Infinite interval values are not accepted. The shifted timestamp must fall within the range supported by UUID version 7's 48-bit millisecond timestamp field: from 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to approximately year 10889. An error is raised if the resulting timestamp is outside this range.	`uuidv7()` `019535d9-3df7-79fb-b466-fa907fa17f9e`

Note

The uuid-ossp module provides additional functions that implement other standard algorithms for generating UUIDs.

UUID Extraction Functions shows the PostgreSQL functions that can be used to extract information from UUIDs.

Table: UUID Extraction Functions

Function	Description	Example(s)
`uuid_extract_timestamp` ( `uuid` ) `timestamp with time zone`	Extracts a `timestamp with time zone` from a UUID of version 1 or 7. For other versions, this function returns null. Note that the extracted timestamp is not necessarily exactly equal to the time the UUID was generated; this depends on the implementation that generated the UUID.	`uuid_extract_timestamp('019535d9-3df7-79fb-b466-fa907fa17f9e'::uuid)` `2025-02-23 21:46:24.503-05`
`uuid_extract_version` ( `uuid` ) `smallint`	Extracts the version from a UUID of one of the variants described by RFC 9562. For other variants, this function returns null. For example, for a UUID generated by `gen_random_uuid()`, this function will return 4.	`uuid_extract_version('41db1265-8bc1-4ab3-992f-885799a4af1d'::uuid)` `4` `uuid_extract_version('019535d9-3df7-79fb-b466-fa907fa17f9e'::uuid)` `7`

PostgreSQL also provides the usual comparison operators shown in Comparison Operators for UUIDs.

See UUID Type for details on the data type uuid in PostgreSQL.