docs/en/sql-reference/functions/uuid-functions.md
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The generated UUID contains a 48-bit timestamp in Unix milliseconds, followed by version "7" (4 bits), a counter (42 bits) to distinguish UUIDs within a millisecond (including a variant field "2", 2 bits), and a random field (32 bits).
For any given timestamp (unix_ts_ms), the counter starts at a random value and is incremented by 1 for each new UUID until the timestamp changes. In case the counter overflows, the timestamp field is incremented by 1 and the counter is reset to a random new start value.
The UUID generation functions guarantee that the counter field within a timestamp increments monotonically across all function invocations in concurrently running threads and queries.
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
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| unix_ts_ms |
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| unix_ts_ms | ver | counter_high_bits |
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|var| counter_low_bits |
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| rand_b |
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The generated Snowflake ID contains the current Unix timestamp in milliseconds (41 + 1 top zero bits), followed by a machine id (10 bits), and a counter (12 bits) to distinguish IDs within a millisecond. For any given timestamp (unix_ts_ms), the counter starts at 0 and is incremented by 1 for each new Snowflake ID until the timestamp changes. In case the counter overflows, the timestamp field is incremented by 1 and the counter is reset to 0.
:::note The generated Snowflake IDs are based on the UNIX epoch 1970-01-01. While no standard or recommendation exists for the epoch of Snowflake IDs, implementations in other systems may use a different epoch, e.g. Twitter/X (2010-11-04) or Mastodon (2015-01-01). :::
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
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|0| timestamp |
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| | machine_id | machine_seq_num |
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