GUID question

[Rob]

Hi,
What is a GUID exactly. Is it a unique identifier that the environment
assigns you or does it take your password and encrypt it? Does it
correspond with a value in the database for validation (such as a
password field)?

Thanks
Rob

 

[Joerg Jooss]

Hi,
What is a GUID exactly. Is it a unique identifier that the environment
assigns you or does it take your password and encrypt it? Does it
correspond with a value in the database for validation (such as a
password field)?

Quoting MSDN:

"A GUID is a 128-bit integer (16 bytes) that can be used across all
computers and networks wherever a unique identifier is required. Such
an identifier has a very low probability of being duplicated."

No password, no encryption.


Cheers,

 

[Rob]

So if someone passes me a guid through a querystring, there no way that
that will correspond to a database field on our database?
It's pretty much like a session("session_id") in classic ASP i guess.

Thanks
Rob

 

[Joerg Jooss]

So if someone passes me a guid through a querystring, there no way
that that will correspond to a database field on our database?

Nothing prevents one from using GUIDs as surrogate primary keys. It can
even be a convenient solution in case you want to expose those primary
keys in a web application without allowing users to easily "walk"
through a database table by incrementing/decrementing primary keys.


Cheers,