PHP function to generate v4 UUID

user_235002 0
Viewed 293033

So I've been doing some digging around and I've been trying to piece together a function that generates a valid v4 UUID in PHP. This is the closest I've been able to come. My knowledge in hex, decimal, binary, PHP's bitwise operators and the like is nearly nonexistent. This function generates a valid v4 UUID up until one area. A v4 UUID should be in the form of:

xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

Where y is 8, 9, A, or B. This is where the functions fails as it doesn't adhere to that.

I was hoping someone with more knowledge than me in this area could lend me a hand and help me fix this function so it does adhere to that rule.

The function is as follows:

<?php

function gen_uuid() {
 $uuid = array(
  'time_low'  => 0,
  'time_mid'  => 0,
  'time_hi'  => 0,
  'clock_seq_hi' => 0,
  'clock_seq_low' => 0,
  'node'   => array()
 );
 
 $uuid['time_low'] = mt_rand(0, 0xffff) + (mt_rand(0, 0xffff) << 16);
 $uuid['time_mid'] = mt_rand(0, 0xffff);
 $uuid['time_hi'] = (4 << 12) | (mt_rand(0, 0x1000));
 $uuid['clock_seq_hi'] = (1 << 7) | (mt_rand(0, 128));
 $uuid['clock_seq_low'] = mt_rand(0, 255);
 
 for ($i = 0; $i < 6; $i++) {
  $uuid['node'][$i] = mt_rand(0, 255);
 }
 
 $uuid = sprintf('%08x-%04x-%04x-%02x%02x-%02x%02x%02x%02x%02x%02x',
  $uuid['time_low'],
  $uuid['time_mid'],
  $uuid['time_hi'],
  $uuid['clock_seq_hi'],
  $uuid['clock_seq_low'],
  $uuid['node'][0],
  $uuid['node'][1],
  $uuid['node'][2],
  $uuid['node'][3],
  $uuid['node'][4],
  $uuid['node'][5]
 );
 
 return $uuid;
}

?>
uuid function php
18 Answers

Taken from this comment on the PHP manual, you could use this:

function gen_uuid() {
    return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
        // 32 bits for "time_low"
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),

        // 16 bits for "time_mid"
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),

        // 16 bits for "time_hi_and_version",
        // four most significant bits holds version number 4
        mt_rand( 0, 0x0fff ) | 0x4000,

        // 16 bits, 8 bits for "clk_seq_hi_res",
        // 8 bits for "clk_seq_low",
        // two most significant bits holds zero and one for variant DCE1.1
        mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,

        // 48 bits for "node"
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff )
    );
}
user_1450250 
// php version >= 7
$uuid = vsprintf('%s%s-%s-%s-%s-%s%s%s', str_split(bin2hex(random_bytes(16)), 4));
user_127267770

A slight variation on Jack's answer to add support for PHP < 7:

// Get an RFC-4122 compliant globaly unique identifier
function get_guid() {
    $data = PHP_MAJOR_VERSION < 7 ? openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(16) : random_bytes(16);
    $data[6] = chr(ord($data[6]) & 0x0f | 0x40);    // Set version to 0100
    $data[8] = chr(ord($data[8]) & 0x3f | 0x80);    // Set bits 6-7 to 10
    return vsprintf('%s%s-%s-%s-%s-%s%s%s', str_split(bin2hex($data), 4));
}
user_15634220
user_21191640

Having searched for the exact same thing and almost implementing a version of this myself, I thought it was worth mentioning that, if you're doing this within a WordPress framework, WP has its own super-handy function for exactly this:

$myUUID = wp_generate_uuid4();

You can read the description and the source here.

user_9882460

Cryptographically secure UUID v4 for PHP >= 7.

<?php

function uuid4() {
    /* 32 random HEX + space for 4 hyphens */
    $out = bin2hex(random_bytes(18));

    $out[8]  = "-";
    $out[13] = "-";
    $out[18] = "-";
    $out[23] = "-";

    /* UUID v4 */
    $out[14] = "4";
    
    /* variant 1 - 10xx */
    $out[19] = ["8", "9", "a", "b"][random_int(0, 3)];

    return $out;
}

echo uuid4();

output: c68469d2-065b-4b17-b36f-5c40efb5f6cd

user_181377020

I'm sure there's a more elegant way to do the conversion from binary to decimal for the 4xxx and yxxx portions. But if you want to use openssl_random_pseudo_bytes as your crytographically secure number generator, this is what I use:

return sprintf('%s-%s-%04x-%04x-%s',
    bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(4)),
    bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(2)),
    hexdec(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(2))) & 0x0fff | 0x4000,
    hexdec(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(2))) & 0x3fff | 0x8000,
    bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(6))
    );
user_37244530

This could be simpler?

$uuid = bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(16));
for($cnt = 8; $cnt <=23; $cnt+=5)
   $uuid = substr($uuid, 0, $cnt) . "-" . substr($uuid, $cnt);

echo $uuid . "\n";
user_168832730

Just an idea, but what I ended up doing to get a V4 GUID was to use the database server. I am using SQL Server, and in the scenario where I needed the GUID, I was already running a query, so I just added newid() as one of the query result fields. That gave me the V4 GUID I needed.

This obviously depends on the database server you are using, and what else is going on in the code where you need the GUID (and how many GUIDs you need), but if your DB server generates v4 GUID, and especially if you are running a query anyway, that is a fast and simple PHP-version-independent way to get your GUID.

user_24503640
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