I've noticed that Java's `java.util.UUID` class supports generating UUID v4, but there's still no built-in method for UUID v7. UUID v7 claims to offer better timestamp ordering which could be really beneficial for databases. Does anyone know if there's any discussion or plans to include UUID v7 in future updates of Java? If not, I'd love to hear why it hasn't been prioritized.
4 Answers
Oh, and there's an ongoing discussion about it linked on the OpenJDK mailing list. Although nothing is definitive, it might be worth checking out if you're interested in the status. Sometimes a bit of persistence pays off, and starting a discussion thread could also garner some interest from the Java dev community!
So, it seems the main reason UUID v7 isn't in core Java yet is because it's not an official standard as of now. The OpenJDK team takes backward compatibility super seriously, and adding something that might change could cause issues down the line. For the moment, using an external library might be the best route until it's fully standardized.
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. Updating core libraries isn't something you want to mess around with too much. I'll stick with the existing libraries for now.
It's interesting to note that RFC 4122 hasn't been completely accepted by any standards committee yet. Other programming languages have libraries based on a draft specification that aren't finalized yet, which might explain the lack of support in Java. However, if you need UUID v7 functionalities now, using a third-party library is an option. There are several cool ones like uuid-creator and java-uuid-generator that can help you out!
That makes sense. I keep seeing libraries in .NET 9 that support it natively. Kind of surprising that Java is lagging behind!
If you really need UUID v7 functionality, I’d suggest just implementing it yourself. You can easily construct a UUID that follows the general structure outlined in RFC 9562. It’s not too complex! Here's a quick sample: you can use a `ByteBuffer` with a `SecureRandom` to generate it. This way, you don’t have to rely on external libraries if you prefer a minimalistic approach.
Wow, that's actually not as hard as I thought it would be! I'll give that a try.
Thanks for the heads up! I'll keep an eye on it and may start a thread myself if I don't find anything new.