NewID vs NewSequentialID - Understanding Your UniqueIdentifier Options

We've long had the uniqueidentifier data type, what developers call guids (globally unique id). Deciding to use them is often a contentious discussion! In this video we'll show you how to generate them two different ways and show you the impact on fragmentation. From there it's to you whether it's a vote for or against them in your database design.

Andy Warren is a software trainer focusing on SQL Server, a member of the PASS Board of Directors, and a principal in this site - SQLShare.com.

Graeme Whelan on 4/9/2010

The presenter said at the outset they would not be discussing the good and bad of using a guid as pk. Can this be the subject of a future video or blog please?

Jamshid Nouri on 4/9/2010

excellent leason and demo

Danijel on 4/9/2010

Great video & explanation! Finally it cleared some things for me :)

Charlie Bruno on 4/9/2010

As expected, a good and informative video, that one would expect from this web site.

E72B0A9423 on 4/9/2010

interesting topic

Jonathon Moorman on 4/9/2010

Great vid, Andy! I have not had time to mess with newsequentialid but your presentation showed what i expected. I hadn't realized that it was only a default value -- I had thought that it could be utilized in an INSERT statement too. Of course, trying to get developers to understand why fragmentation is bad ... :) Another EXCELLENT video, thanks for sharing!

Kasey Wheeler on 4/9/2010

nice explanation.

Sara Karasik on 4/9/2010

Fantastic! Never would have thought of using this, and though I don't know when I will, it certainly is knowledge worth having. I wish that I could understand some more on index fragmentation though.

Deepak on 4/9/2010

I am new to this site and I am very happy with all your effort. Amazing stuff and thank you very much from bottom of my heart. Cheers, Deepak

John O'Sullivan on 4/9/2010

excellent topic and video

Martin Miller on 4/9/2010

Great demo. Thanks Andy.

Steve Harris on 4/12/2010

very clear and concise example

Team FAB on 4/13/2010

Now I understand about fragmentation and the use of NEWID() and NEWSEQUENTIALID(), thanks.

DavidB on 4/15/2010

Great stuff lately! Nice work Andy and crew. Keep them coming. The SQL Server community is strengthed through your efforts.

Rob Wingate on 4/15/2010

Andy Warren really is the bomb

Mario J. Mont on 4/27/2010

brief but good, Thanks a bunch!

David Adams on 7/9/2010

Great demonstration. Very enlightening and good point about the security with urls.