Hacker News Reader

I've used MongoDB quite a bit and I don't like that it has the timestamp in the id. That's unnecessary information.

With UUIDs I prefer UUID4 to UUID1 most of the time.

I prefer to only include the relevant information and for API keys the client doesn't usually need the time the key was created.

View on HN

Of course if you don't like the id's that MongoDB generates by default you can always the supply your own. The only constraint on the _id field is that it be unique as we automatically apply a unique index. Effectively if you have a unique key for your data you should use _id for it as it saves you an index. (We always index _id).

(I work for MongoDB).

I don't agree. Your examples (UUID1, UUID4) are much longer strings and contain no useful information. UUID1 contains the device's MAC ID, UUID4 is just random bits.. vs a functional ID system like pika or Snowflakes which make use of those random bits by embedding a timestamp - something which might actually come in useful for some.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com