Assigning a GUID in C#

Question

I've got a lot of code that is using GUIDs (an architecture handed to me--not my choice).

Mostly, the values come from a database and load into memory from there. However, I'm doing some testing and I'm hard-coding some GUIDs into the code.

I haven't found an easy way to assign GUIDs, so I've ended up using Guid.Parse("...."). Is there an easier way to assign GUIDS in C#?

value = Guid.Parse("11223344-5566-7788-99AA-BBCCDDEEFF00");

It just seems like a lot of overhead to create the string then parse it. I would think there would be an easier way to directly assign it.

Do you need the Guids to have specific values? If not, then... var myGuid = Guid.NewGuid();? — anaximander
– anaximander, Commented Jun 18, 2013 at 12:42
Yeah, unfortunately, I do. They're all tied back to database values (PKs and FKs, nonetheless). Not what I would've started with, but I didn't build the system myself. The code above is just a silly example, not directly from my codebase. — Richard
– Richard, Commented Jun 18, 2013 at 12:57

Tom Chantler · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18 12:43:38Z

88

If you already have a string representation of the Guid, you can do this:

Guid g = new Guid("11223344-5566-7788-99AA-BBCCDDEEFF00");

And if you want a brand new Guid then just do

Guid g = Guid.NewGuid();

answered Jun 18, 2013 at 12:43

Tom Chantler

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2 Comments

Richard Over a year ago

Yeah, that's it. I suspect it's still doing a .Parse() underneath the covers, but at least it's cleaner in code. Thanks.

Tom Chantler Over a year ago

I'm sure you're right, but as you say, this looks cleaner. Also, have you seen Eric Lippert's blog series about Guids? It's quite interesting (I know you're stuck with them, so maybe not pertinent to you): blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2012/04/24/…

Yaugen Vlasau · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18 12:45:06Z

In case you use the guid as a constant - you can put the guid in your project settings. enter image description here than you can reach you values the following way:

var myGuid = Properties.Settings.Default.MyGuid;

Radim Köhler · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-08 03:24:21Z

if you go for the constant option you can use this Guid method (one of six available):

private static const Guid PUBLIC_KEY = new Guid((int)0x93EE8E7F, 0x13FA, 0x4C6D, new byte[] { 0x9D, 0x32, 0xE6, 0xEC, 0xD1, 0x4A, 0x91, 0xA7 }); // {93EE8E7F-13FA-4C6D-9D32-E6ECD14A91A7}

If this is C# snippet then it will not compile because a const cannot be marked as static.

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