             for (var i:uint = 0; i < 16; i++)
             {
                 if (i == 4 || i == 6 || i == 8 || i == 10)
-                    chars[index++] = 45; // Hyphen char code
+                    chars[index++] = DASH; // Hyphen char code
 
                 var b:int = ba.readByte();
                 chars[index++] = ALPHA_CHAR_CODES[(b & 0xF0) >>> 4];

     */
	private static const ALPHA_CHAR_CODES:Array = [48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 
		55, 56, 57, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70];
	
	private static const HEX_CHARS:String = "0123456789ABCDEF";
	
	private static var EMPTYUID:Array = [
		'0','0','0','0','0','0','0','0',
		'-','0','0','0','0',
		'-','0','0','0','0',
		'-','0','0','0','0',
		'-','0','0','0','0','0','0','0','0','0','0','0','0'
	];

    //--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    //

     *  @productversion Flex 3
     */
	public static function createUID():String
    {
        UIDBuffer.position = 0;

        var i:int;
        var j:int;

        for (i = 0; i < 8; i++)
        {
            UIDBuffer.writeByte(ALPHA_CHAR_CODES[int(Math.random() * 16)]);
        }

        for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
        {
            UIDBuffer.writeByte(DASH);
            for (j = 0; j < 4; j++)
            {
                UIDBuffer.writeByte(ALPHA_CHAR_CODES[int(Math.random() * 16)]);
            }
        }

        UIDBuffer.writeByte(DASH);

        var time:uint = new Date().getTime(); // extract last 8 digits
        var timeString:String = time.toString(16).toUpperCase();
        // 0xFFFFFFFF milliseconds ~= 3 days, so timeString may have between 1 and 8 digits, hence we need to pad with 0s to 8 digits
        for (i = 8; i > timeString.length; --i)
            UIDBuffer.writeByte(48);
        UIDBuffer.writeUTFBytes(timeString);

        for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
        {
            UIDBuffer.writeByte(ALPHA_CHAR_CODES[int(Math.random() * 16)]);
        }

        return UIDBuffer.toString();
    }

    /**
     * Converts a 128-bit UID encoded as a ByteArray to a String representation.
