Question

Why are UUID’s presented in the format “8-4-4-4-12” (digits)? I’ve had a look around for the reason but can’t find the decision that calls for it.

Example of UUID formatted as hex string:
58D5E212-165B-4CA0-909B-C86B9CEE0111

Answer 1

It’s separated by time, version, clock_seq_hi, clock_seq_lo, node, as indicated in the following RFC.

From the IETF RFC4122:

4.1.2.  Layout and Byte Order

   To minimize confusion about bit assignments within octets, the UUID
   record definition is defined only in terms of fields that are
   integral numbers of octets.  The fields are presented with the most
   significant one first.

   Field                  Data Type     Octet  Note
                                        #

   time_low               unsigned 32   0-3    The low field of the
                          bit integer          timestamp

   time_mid               unsigned 16   4-5    The middle field of the
                          bit integer          timestamp

   time_hi_and_version    unsigned 16   6-7    The high field of the
                          bit integer          timestamp multiplexed
                                               with the version number  

   clock_seq_hi_and_rese  unsigned 8    8      The high field of the
   rved                   bit integer          clock sequence
                                               multiplexed with the
                                               variant

   clock_seq_low          unsigned 8    9      The low field of the
                          bit integer          clock sequence

   node                   unsigned 48   10-15  The spatially unique
                          bit integer          node identifier

   In the absence of explicit application or presentation protocol
   specification to the contrary, a UUID is encoded as a 128-bit object,
   as follows:

   The fields are encoded as 16 octets, with the sizes and order of the
   fields defined above, and with each field encoded with the Most
   Significant Byte first (known as network byte order).  Note that the
   field names, particularly for multiplexed fields, follow historical
   practice.

   0                   1                   2                   3
    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                          time_low                             |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |       time_mid                |         time_hi_and_version   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |clk_seq_hi_res |  clk_seq_low  |         node (0-1)            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |                         node (2-5)                            |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+