FQL v4 will be decommissioned on June 30, 2025. Ensure that you complete your migration from FQL v4 to FQL v10 by that date.

For more details, review the migration guide. Contact support@fauna.com with any questions.

NewId

This reference topic applies to FQL v4. Go to this page for the latest FQL v10 reference topics.

 
NewId()
new_id()
NewId()
NewId()
NewId()

Description

The NewId function produces a number which is guaranteed to be unique across all databases and is suitable for constructing the document ID part of a Reference.

Fauna’s document IDs are generated using the Twitter Snowflake algorithm. The IDs are based on time instead of being sequential, and are generally increasing. As such, the NewId function should not be used to generate random numbers.

FQL does not provide random number generation, as its operations attempt to be as deterministic as possible.

If you need a source of random numbers, your host language or browser can provide high-performance random number generation. Once you have generated a random number, you can then use it within your queries in deterministic fashion.

Parameters

None.

Returns

A unique numeric String.

Examples

The following query returns a unique string-encoded 64-bit integer:

client.query(
  q.NewId()
)
.then((ret) => console.log(ret))
.catch((err) => console.error(
  'Error: [%s] %s: %s',
  err.name,
  err.message,
  err.errors()[0].description,
))
181388643266462208
result = client.query(
  q.new_id()
)
print(result)
"181388643266462208"
result, err := client.Query(
	f.NewId())

if err != nil {
	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, err)
} else {
	fmt.Println(result)
}
280481920441123328
try
{
    Value result = await client.Query(
        NewId()
    );
    Console.WriteLine(result);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"ERROR: {e.Message}");
}
StringV(280491725429932544)
NewId()
'302044032378339840'
Query metrics:

  •    bytesIn:  15

  •   bytesOut:  33

  • computeOps:   1

  •    readOps:   0

  •   writeOps:   0

  •  readBytes:   0

  • writeBytes:   0

  •  queryTime: 2ms

  •    retries:   0

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