SAS 9.4 Language Reference, 6th Edition

Chapter 41

Universal Unique Identifiers

Universal Unique Identifiers and the Object Spawner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

What Is a Universal Unique Identifier? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

What Is the Object Spawner? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Defining the UUID Generator Daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

Installing the UUID Generator Daemon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

Using SAS Language Elements to Assign UUIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

Overview of Using SAS Language Elements to Assign UUIDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

UUIDGEN Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

UUIDCOUNT= System Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

UUIDGENDHOST System Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

Universal Unique Identifiers and the Object

Spawner

What Is a Universal Unique Identifier?

A Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit identifier that consists of date and

time information, and the IEEE node address of a host. UUIDs are useful when objects

such as rows or other components of a SAS application must be uniquely identified. For

example, if SAS is running as a server and is distributing objects to several clients

concurrently, you can associate a UUID with each object. This ensures that a particular

client and SAS are referencing the same object.

What Is the Object Spawner?

The object spawner is a program that runs on the server and listens for requests. When a

request is received, the object spawner accepts the connection and performs the action

that is associated with the port or service on which the connection was made. The object

spawner can be configured to be a UUID Generator Daemon (UUIDGEND), which

creates UUIDs for the requesting program. Currently, SAS can generate UUIDs only in

the Windows operating environment. UUIDGEND generates UUIDs for SAS sessions

that execute on hosts that do not have native UUID generation support.

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