How do I create a random alpha-numeric string in C

Question

I'd like to create a random string, consisting of alpha-numeric characters. I want to be able to be specify the length of the string.

How do I do this in C++?

Answer 1

Example for Qt use:)

QString random_string(int length=32, QString allow_symbols=QString("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789")) {
    QString result;
    qsrand(QTime::currentTime().msec());
    for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i) {            
        result.append(allow_symbols.at(qrand() % (allow_symbols.length())));
    }
    return result;
}

Answer 2

Be ware when calling the function

string gen_random(const int len) {
static const char alphanum[] = "0123456789"
        "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";

stringstream ss;

for (int i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
    ss << alphanum[rand() % (sizeof(alphanum) - 1)];
}
return ss.str();
}

(adapted of @Ates Goral) it will result in the same character sequence every time. Use

srand(time(NULL));

before calling the function, although the rand() function is always seeded with 1 @kjfletch.

For Example:

void SerialNumberGenerator() {

    srand(time(NULL));
    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
        cout << gen_random(10) << endl;
    }
}

Answer 3

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <random>

std::string generateRandomId(size_t length = 0)
{
    static const std::string allowed_chars {"123456789BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXZbcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxz"};

    static thread_local std::default_random_engine randomEngine(std::random_device{}());
    static thread_local std::uniform_int_distribution<int> randomDistribution(0, allowed_chars.size() - 1);

    std::string id(length ? length : 32, '\0');

    for (std::string::value_type& c : id) {
        c = allowed_chars[randomDistribution(randomEngine)];
    }

    return id;
}

int main()
{
    std::cout << generateRandomId() << std::endl;
}

Answer 4

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main()
{
    int size;
    std::cout << "Enter size : ";
    std::cin >> size;
    std::string str;
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
    {
        auto d = rand() % 26 + 'a';
        str.push_back(d);
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
    {
        std::cout << str[i] << '\t';
    }

    return 0;
}

Answer 5

Let's make random convenient again!

I made up a nice C++11 header only solution. You could easily add one header file to your project and then add your tests or use random strings for another purposes.

That's a quick description, but you can follow the link to check full code. The main part of solution is in class Randomer:

class Randomer {
    // random seed by default
    std::mt19937 gen_;
    std::uniform_int_distribution<size_t> dist_;

public:
    /* ... some convenience ctors ... */

    Randomer(size_t min, size_t max, unsigned int seed = std::random_device{}())
        : gen_{seed}, dist_{min, max} {
    }

    // if you want predictable numbers
    void SetSeed(unsigned int seed) {
        gen_.seed(seed);
    }

    size_t operator()() {
        return dist_(gen_);
    }
};

Randomer incapsulates all random stuff and you can add your own functionality to it easily. After we have Randomer, it's very easy to generate strings:

std::string GenerateString(size_t len) {
    std::string str;
    auto rand_char = [](){ return alphabet[randomer()]; };
    std::generate_n(std::back_inserter(str), len, rand_char);
    return str;
}

Write your suggestions for improvement below. https://gist.github.com/VjGusev/e6da2cb4d4b0b531c1d009cd1f8904ad

Answer 6

Mehrdad Afshari's answer would do the trick, but I found it a bit too verbose for this simple task. Look-up tables can sometimes do wonders:

void gen_random(char *s, const int len) {
    static const char alphanum[] =
        "0123456789"
        "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
        "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

    for (int i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
        s[i] = alphanum[rand() % (sizeof(alphanum) - 1)];
    }

    s[len] = 0;
}