Using the uuid data type in Postgres

It's incredibly simple to use the uuid data type in PostgreSQL!

First we need to enable the uuid-ossp extension by executing the following SQL:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "uuid-ossp";  

Now the uuid data type is available for us to use! Let's try using it as our primary key in a table.

CREATE TABLE users (  
  id   uuid PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4(),
  name text NOT NULL
);

Notice that we're generating default ids by calling the uuid_generate_v4() function.

Let's test it out by inserting a record.

INSERT INTO users (name) VALUES ("Sean Huber");  

We can verify that it worked with a simple SELECT * FROM users!

                  id                  |       name        
--------------------------------------+-------------------
 cf5c79cd-8a8d-4afd-8091-ef93f662a44d | Sean Huber

(1 row)