Revisiting GUIDs, Octets and Base64
After re-reading my earlier post on this subject I decided I could be clearer. GUIDs are often used in three different formats: Representation Example Canonical form 8c4ac332-975f-4717-ad7b-ba4a4e968fff Octet String 32c34a8c5f971747ad7bba4a4e968fff Base64 Encoded MsNKjF+XF0ete7pKTpaP/w== Representation Comment Used in Canonical form This format stems from the way GUIDs (UUIDs) are generated. Each dash separating the various components. In version one of the UUID specification, the first the last component was the MAC address of the computer that generated the GUID.