Generating Unique IDs in JavaScript (Without a Library)

Often, you'll see people create their functions to generate a random string to use as an ID. But did you know JS has a built-in function to create a UUID?

This is available by calling randomUUID() via crypto.

It's baked right into the language, so there's no need for external packages. Here are examples of it in action:

Browser

In the Browser you need no imports and can simply use crypto.randomUUID();:

const uuid = crypto.randomUUID();
console.log(uuid); 
// Output will be something like: "32458483-11c1-4334-bd64-a139f0de1bca"

Serverside

For serverside JS, the only difference is you need to import the crypto module:

Start by importing the crypto module, then generate the UUID:

// If using CommonJS, replace the import with: const crypto = require("crypto") 
import crypto from "crypto";
const uuid = crypto.randomUUID();
console.log(uuid); 
// Output will be something like: "32458483-11c1-4334-bd64-a139f0de1bca"

Easy, right?

Notes:

If you are wondering, the randomUUID() method generates a v4 UUID using a cryptographically secure random number generator.