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The Cost of GUIDs as Primary Keys (2002)

3 pointsby NathanOsullivanalmost 3 years ago

1 comment

NathanOsullivanalmost 3 years ago
It&#x27;s fascinating to me how some solutions in programming become &#x27;trendy&#x27; and get used everywhere, even when it may not be the right solution.<p>And then other solutions, like the &quot;COMB GUID&quot; from 2002 have stayed in relative obscurity despite neatly solving a small, concrete problem so many of us encounter.<p>The author&#x27;s 20 year old solution is amazingly similar to the recent UUIDv7 draft, right down to assigning 48 bits to the timestamp component; buried on page 6 of an otherwise unassuming article.<p>This should have been a revelation for everyone building database backed applications, but instead has either been outright ignored or reinvented in various ways over the years instead.<p>Makes me wonder what other solved-problems our profession has largely overlooked.