Hi,

> > However, it is guaranteed unique until the year 3040.
>
> Can I ask where you got this snippet of information?
>
> Specifically the ideas of "guarantee" and "year 3040".
>
> I thought that GUIDs were effectively random numbers, created
> in such a way that the _chances_ of duplication were extremely
> small. But still only chance and not a guarantee.

From what I understood, GUIDs are basically random
except when you have a network card in your PC. Then,
they use the MAC address (or something like that) from
the card, which is unique, and therefor become unique
IDs, unless your PC reboots in about half a second or so.

> I am guessing that the date must come about from estimating
> how many computers there are generating so many GUIDs per
> second that a duplication is likely by that time. (Of course
> if you use GUIDs for a purely in-house database across 3 PCs
> you can probably expect them to be useful for much longer. :-)

With regards,

Martijn Tonies
Database Workbench - developer tool for InterBase, Firebird, MySQL & MS SQL
Server.
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com