Sortable UUID v1 for multi-platform application

We are looking for a solution to create a unique identifier for messages / signals that are exchanged between clients on the web, iOS and Android and then saved to the backend.

• The solution must be standardized

• available on multiple platforms

• sort by time indexed by database

UUID v1 has these properties, with the exception of one small thing that requires reordering the string identifier in order to sort and index.

The UUID documentation explains that the order of time blocks is reversed (starts in milliseconds) ( link ).

  UUID                   = time-low "-" time-mid "-"
                           time-high-and-version "-"
                           clock-seq-and-reserved
                           clock-seq-low "-" node
  time-low               = 4hexOctet
  time-mid               = 2hexOctet
  time-high-and-version  = 2hexOctet
  clock-seq-and-reserved = hexOctet
  clock-seq-low          = hexOctet
  node                   = 6hexOctet

      

        
        
        
      

    

Due to the UUID representation, we cannot sort IDs by simply string representation of IDs, and we have to use the compare function.

const toSortableUUID = uuidV1 =>
  uuidV1.replace(/^(.{8})-(.{4})-(.{4})/, '$3-$2-$1');

const uuidCompare = (uuidV1A, uuidV1B) => {
  if (uuidV1A === uuidV1B) {
    return 0;
  }
  const a = toSortableUUID(uuidV1A);
  const b = toSortableUUID(uuidV1B);
  return a < b ? -1 : 1;
};

const sortedArrayOfUUIDV1 = arrayOfUUIDV1.concat().sort(uuidCompare);

      

        
        
        
      

    

Do you know of another standardized approach that won't have this problem?

Wouldn't it be correct to use UUID v1, but exchange it between the rearranged clients so that clients can sort by string representations and don't have to use the compare function every time to sort?

Live test: https://codesandbox.io/s/q5oRxgnp