Creating GUIDs
Windows only

by Dale Fugier (Last updated:  Wednesday, December 12, 2018)

Overview

Globally Unique Identifiers - or GUIDs - are unique identification numbers that are used to track items. Rhino uses GUIDs just for this purpose. GUIDs come in different formats, but are usually stored as 128-bit values, and are commonly displayed as 32 hexadecimal digits with groups separated by hyphens:

{3AEC4721-34KP-3152-B2BB-17442C41208P}

Let’s write a script that creates GUIDs…

GUID Generation

There is actually a very easy way to generate GUIDs. The Scriptlet.TypeLib object includes a method that generates GUIDs. If you need a GUID, here is a short script that will supply you with one:

' Creates a Registry-formatted GUID string
' Ex: {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
Function CreateGuidRegistryFormat
  Dim objTypeLib
  Set objTypeLib = CreateObject("Scriptlet.TypeLib")
  CreateGuidRegistryFormat = Left(objTypeLib.Guid, 38)
End Function

If you want to create a plain GUID - one without the surrounding curly brackets, then you can do something like this:

' Creates a plain-formatted GUID string
' Ex: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
Function CreateGuidPlainFormat
  Dim objTypeLib
  Set objTypeLib = CreateObject("Scriptlet.TypeLib")
  CreateGuidPlainFormat = Mid(objTypeLib.Guid, 2, 36)
End Function