I am quite new to JS and was going over the code for generating a GUID / UUID.
This is the code I found in this Stackoverflow question
function uuidv4() {
return 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx'.replace(/[xy]/g, function(c) {
var r = Math.random() * 16 | 0, v = c == 'x' ? r : (r & 0x3 | 0x8);
return v.toString(16);
});
}
console.log(uuidv4());
What I am having trouble with is understanding this syntax:
var r = Math.random() * 16 | 0, v = c == 'x' ? r : (r & 0x3 | 0x8);
Can someone help me by explaining step by step what it does?
Your support is much appreciated.
Regards
var r = Math.random() * 16 | 0, v = c == 'x' ? r : (r & 0x3 | 0x8);
is the same as
var r = Math.random() * 16 | 0;
ie, create a random number in the range from 0-15 (or 0-f in hex) without decimal places. You could also write this line as
var r = Math.floor(Math.random() * 16)
but | 0
is probably faster ... And
var v = c == 'x' ? r : (r & 0x3 | 0x8);
ie, depending on the value of the current character to replace (ie 'x' or 'y') use either r
or r | 0x3 | 0x8
as value for the current place. The latter is because of specification of UUID version 4, that certain bits must have certain values. See specs for details.
You can rewrite this line as follows
var v = 0;
if (c == 'x') v = r;
else v = r & 0x3 | 0x8
So v
is still a value between 0 and 15, which is than converted to a hex char (0 - f) with v.toString(16)