Basic GUID Operations in C#.Net & VB.NET

In today's article I will show you the What is GUID and what are different ways to use and real-life example using C#.net and VB.NET.  Guid is a 128-bitcombination of number and characters.  Guid can be used as unique key in database, as a file name and identifier. So here we will user .net core 10 and a console application. So, for this article first we will create a new .net core 10 console application. 

GUID Operations

Generate New GUID

C#.Net

Guid guid = Guid.NewGuid();
Console.WriteLine("Generated New GUID: " + guid); 

VB.NET

Dim guid As Guid = Guid.NewGuid()
Console.WriteLine("Generated New GUID: " & guid.ToString()) 

In above code i have used Guid.NewGuid() to generate the new GUID. After generation of GUID i have printed it by converting it into string.  Now let's run the code to check the output.

Convert or Parse String To GUID

C#.Net

string strGuid = "1384134c-2f0d-4b52-a9a6-8c2b2e3ecbf0";
Console.WriteLine("Original GUID String: " + strGuid);
Guid guid = Guid.Parse(strGuid);
Console.WriteLine("Parsed GUID: " + guid.ToString()); 

VB.NET

Dim strGuid As String = "1384134c-2f0d-4b52-a9a6-8c2b2e3ecbf0"
Console.WriteLine("Original GUID String: " & strGuid)
Dim guid As Guid = Guid.Parse(strGuid)
Console.WriteLine("Parsed GUID: " & guid.ToString()) 

In above code I have taken a string variable and in this I have added a guid string value. Now to parse the string to Guid I have used Guid.Parse(). Guid.Parse() you use in a scenario where to sure that the parsed string is a valid guid string. Otherwise use Guid.TryParse(). Now let's run the code to check the output.

Comparing GUID

C#.Net

Guid guid1 = Guid.NewGuid();
Guid guid2 = Guid.NewGuid();
bool status= guid1.Equals(guid2);
Console.WriteLine("Is both guid same: " + status); 

VB.NET

Dim guid1 As Guid = Guid.NewGuid()
Dim guid2 As Guid = Guid.NewGuid()
Dim status As Boolean = guid1.Equals(guid2)
Console.WriteLine("Is both guid same: " & status) 

In above code I have taken two guid and used Equal() method to compare one guid to another one. If the guid, are we will get true otherwise will get false. 

Empty GUID Generation

C#.Net

Guid emptyGuid = Guid.Empty;
Console.WriteLine("Generated Empty GUID: " + emptyGuid); 

VB.NET

Dim emptyGuid As Guid = Guid.Empty
Console.WriteLine("Generated Empty GUID: " & emptyGuid.ToString()) 

To generate the empty guid Udemy have been used.