On May 30, 8:46 am, Steve Hayes <[email protected]> wrote: > RINs are smaller numbers than UIDs, and I use them for identifying people in > my main database. No. Using the term UID here is just adding more confusion. A UID stands for unique identifier, but there's no requirement for it to be universally unique. All that's required is that it's unique within some defined set -- e.g. INDIs in a GEDCOM file. So RINs and UUIDs (or GUIDs) are both perfectly good examples of a UID. What you actually meant is that RINs are smaller numbers than UUIDs. That's true. The term UID is sufficiently loosely defined, that we cannot say anything useful about it, and it's best to avoid the term. Richard