MariaDB UUID Data Type

MariaDB’s UUID data type stores 128-bit UUID values. It is available from MariaDB 10.7. Values are returned in the standard hyphenated UUID string format, while the type stores the value in an index-friendly representation.

Create a UUID column

Use UUID like other column types:

CREATE TABLE events (
    event_id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    event_name VARCHAR(80) NOT NULL
);

The type does not generate values or enforce uniqueness on its own; this example uses a PRIMARY KEY to reject duplicate identifiers. MariaDB’s UUID() function generates UUIDv1 values:

INSERT INTO events (event_id, event_name)
VALUES (UUID(), 'account_created');

MariaDB 11.7 and later also provide UUID_v4() and UUID_v7().

Accepted input formats

The type accepts UUID strings, hexadecimal strings, and binary values. UUID string input may use the standard hyphenated format or omit hyphens. MariaDB also accepts hyphens inserted after any pair of hexadecimal digits, but rejects braces around the UUID. SYS_GUID() output without hyphens can be inserted into a UUID column. UUID_SHORT() returns a 64-bit integer and is not a full-length UUID.

When retrieved, the value is displayed in the standard 36-character format, for example:

123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000

UUID storage and ordering

MariaDB stores UUID values in an order designed to make UUIDv1 index-friendly. Starting with MariaDB 10.10.6 and 10.11.5, UUID versions 6 and later are stored without the earlier byte-swapping behavior; this includes UUIDv7. Those versions also reject UUIDv8 values with variant 0, which earlier releases did not reject. Check the server version when relying on UUID ordering or validating UUIDv8 input across upgrades.

For function behavior, see the UUID(), UUID_v4(), and UUID_v7() references. See MariaDB’s official UUID data type documentation for the full casting and storage rules.