Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)
====================================

The :doc:`/servers/datastore` accepts a UUID (a unique identifier) as the key to
its key-value storage.

The `Google UUID library`_ is already imported for you in `proj2.go`_.

Below are functions you can use to generate a UUID, either randomly from
scratch, or deterministically from a piece of data.


.. function:: uuid.New()

    Returns a randomly generated UUID.

    :rtype: uuid.UUID

    **Example:**

    .. code-block:: go

        new_UUID := uuid.New()

.. function:: uuid.FromBytes(b []byte) (uuid UUID, err error)

    FromBytes creates a new UUID from a byte slice. Returns an error if the
    slice does not have a length of 16. The bytes are copied from the slice.
    
    Note that the generated UUID will reveal information about the input
    bytestring. In other words, the generated UUID provides no confidentiality
    for the input data in byte slice *b*.
    
    :param b: Byte slice from which to create a UUID.
    :type b: []byte

    :rtype: uuid.UUID

    **Example:**

    .. code-block:: go

        (new_UUID, _) := uuid.FromBytes(byte_slice[:16])

.. _Google UUID library: https://godoc.org/github.com/google/uuid
.. _proj2.go: https://github.com/cs161-staff/project2-starter-code/blob/main/proj2.go