TIL - uuid.uuid5 Generate Deterministic Identifiers

Today I Learned Jun 13, 2026

uuid4 generates cryptographically random IDs, but uuid5 generates deterministic IDs based on a namespace and a name (a string). Same string, same UUID.

import uuid

# Random ID
print(uuid.uuid4())

# Deterministic ID based on a string URL
namespace = uuid.NAMESPACE_URL
deterministic_id = uuid.uuid5(namespace, "https://example.com")

print(deterministic_id)
# This will always be exactly identical for the same URL string

uuid5 is incredible for hashing strings into valid UUID formats for database primary keys without collisions.