How can I generate random alphanumeric strings? [c

Question

How can I generate random 8 character alphanumeric strings in C#?

Answer 1

This implementation (found via google) looks sound to me.

Unlike some of the alternatives presented, this one is cryptographically sound.

using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;

namespace UniqueKey
{
    public class KeyGenerator
    {
        public static string GetUniqueKey(int size)
        {
            char[] chars =
                "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890".ToCharArray();
            byte[] data = new byte[size];
            using (RNGCryptoServiceProvider crypto = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                crypto.GetBytes(data);
            }
            StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(size);
            foreach (byte b in data)
            {
                result.Append(chars[b % (chars.Length)]);
            }
            return result.ToString();
        }
    }
}

Picked that one from a discussion of alternatives here

Answer 2

var chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
var stringChars = new char[8];
var random = new Random();

for (int i = 0; i < stringChars.Length; i++)
{
    stringChars[i] = chars[random.Next(chars.Length)];
}

var finalString = new String(stringChars);

Not as elegant as the Linq solution. (-:

(Note: The use of the Random class makes this unsuitable for anything security related, such as creating passwords or tokens. Use the RNGCryptoServiceProvider class if you need a strong random number generator.)

Answer 3

Here is a variant of Eric J's solution, i.e. cryptographically sound, for WinRT (Windows Store App):

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length)
{
    var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890";
    var result = new StringBuilder(length);
    for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i)
    {
        result.Append(CryptographicBuffer.GenerateRandomNumber() % chars.Length);
    }
    return result.ToString();
}

If performance matters (especially when length is high):

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length)
{
    var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890";
    var result = new System.Text.StringBuilder(length);
    var bytes = CryptographicBuffer.GenerateRandom((uint)length * 4).ToArray();
    for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i += 4)
    {
        result.Append(BitConverter.ToUInt32(bytes, i) % chars.Length);
    }
    return result.ToString();
}

Answer 4

Question: Why should I waste my time using Enumerable.Range instead of typing in "ABCDEFGHJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"?

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

public class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var randomCharacters = GetRandomCharacters(8, true);
        Console.WriteLine(new string(randomCharacters.ToArray()));
    }

    private static List<char> getAvailableRandomCharacters(bool includeLowerCase)
    {
        var integers = Enumerable.Empty<int>();
        integers = integers.Concat(Enumerable.Range('A', 26));
        integers = integers.Concat(Enumerable.Range('0', 10));

        if ( includeLowerCase )
            integers = integers.Concat(Enumerable.Range('a', 26));

        return integers.Select(i => (char)i).ToList();
    }

    public static IEnumerable<char> GetRandomCharacters(int count, bool includeLowerCase)
    {
        var characters = getAvailableRandomCharacters(includeLowerCase);
        var random = new Random();
        var result = Enumerable.Range(0, count)
            .Select(_ => characters[random.Next(characters.Count)]);

        return result;
    }
}

---

Answer: Magic strings are BAD. Did ANYONE notice there was no "I" in my string at the top? My mother taught me not to use magic strings for this very reason...

n.b. 1: As many others like @dtb said, don't use System.Random if you need cryptographic security...

n.b. 2: This answer isn't the most efficient or shortest, but I wanted the space to separate the answer from the question. The purpose of my answer is more to warn against magic strings than to provide a fancy innovative answer.

Answer 5

I was looking for a more specific answer, where I want to control the format of the random string and came across this post. For example: license plates (of cars) have a specific format (per country) and I wanted to created random license plates.
I decided to write my own extension method of Random for this. (this is in order to reuse the same Random object, as you could have doubles in multi-threading scenarios). I created a gist (https://gist.github.com/SamVanhoutte/808845ca78b9c041e928), but will also copy the extension class here:

void Main()
{
    Random rnd = new Random();
    rnd.GetString("1-###-000").Dump();
}

public static class RandomExtensions
{
    public static string GetString(this Random random, string format)
    {
        // Based on http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1344221/how-can-i-generate-random-alphanumeric-strings-in-c
        // Added logic to specify the format of the random string (# will be random string, 0 will be random numeric, other characters remain)
        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
        for(int formatIndex = 0; formatIndex < format.Length ; formatIndex++)
        {
            switch(format.ToUpper()[formatIndex])
            {
                case '0': result.Append(getRandomNumeric(random)); break;
                case '#': result.Append(getRandomCharacter(random)); break;
                default : result.Append(format[formatIndex]); break;
            }
        }
        return result.ToString();
    }

    private static char getRandomCharacter(Random random)
    {
        string chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
        return chars[random.Next(chars.Length)];
    }

    private static char getRandomNumeric(Random random)
    {
        string nums = "0123456789";
        return nums[random.Next(nums.Length)];
    }
}

Answer 6

Just some performance comparisons of the various answers in this thread:

Methods & Setup

// what's available
public static string possibleChars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
// optimized (?) what's available
public static char[] possibleCharsArray = possibleChars.ToCharArray();
// optimized (precalculated) count
public static int possibleCharsAvailable = possibleChars.Length;
// shared randomization thingy
public static Random random = new Random();


// http://stackoverflow.com/a/1344242/1037948
public string LinqIsTheNewBlack(int num) {
    return new string(
    Enumerable.Repeat(possibleCharsArray, num)
              .Select(s => s[random.Next(s.Length)])
              .ToArray());
}

// http://stackoverflow.com/a/1344258/1037948
public string ForLoop(int num) {
    var result = new char[num];
    while(num-- > 0) {
        result[num] = possibleCharsArray[random.Next(possibleCharsAvailable)];
    }
    return new string(result);
}

public string ForLoopNonOptimized(int num) {
    var result = new char[num];
    while(num-- > 0) {
        result[num] = possibleChars[random.Next(possibleChars.Length)];
    }
    return new string(result);
}

public string Repeat(int num) {
    return new string(new char[num].Select(o => possibleCharsArray[random.Next(possibleCharsAvailable)]).ToArray());
}

// http://stackoverflow.com/a/1518495/1037948
public string GenerateRandomString(int num) {
  var rBytes = new byte[num];
  random.NextBytes(rBytes);
  var rName = new char[num];
  while(num-- > 0)
    rName[num] = possibleCharsArray[rBytes[num] % possibleCharsAvailable];
  return new string(rName);
}

//SecureFastRandom - or SolidSwiftRandom
static string GenerateRandomString(int Length) //Configurable output string length
{
    byte[] rBytes = new byte[Length]; 
    char[] rName = new char[Length];
    SolidSwiftRandom.GetNextBytesWithMax(rBytes, biasZone);
    for (var i = 0; i < Length; i++)
    {
        rName[i] = charSet[rBytes[i] % charSet.Length];
    }
    return new string(rName);
}

Results

Tested in LinqPad. For string size of 10, generates:

• from Linq = chdgmevhcy [10]
• from Loop = gtnoaryhxr [10]
• from Select = rsndbztyby [10]
• from GenerateRandomString = owyefjjakj [10]
• from SecureFastRandom = VzougLYHYP [10]
• from SecureFastRandom-NoCache = oVQXNGmO1S [10]

And the performance numbers tend to vary slightly, very occasionally NonOptimized is actually faster, and sometimes ForLoop and GenerateRandomString switch who's in the lead.

• LinqIsTheNewBlack (10000x) = 96762 ticks elapsed (9.6762 ms)
• ForLoop (10000x) = 28970 ticks elapsed (2.897 ms)
• ForLoopNonOptimized (10000x) = 33336 ticks elapsed (3.3336 ms)
• Repeat (10000x) = 78547 ticks elapsed (7.8547 ms)
• GenerateRandomString (10000x) = 27416 ticks elapsed (2.7416 ms)
• SecureFastRandom (10000x) = 13176 ticks elapsed (5ms) lowest [Different machine]
• SecureFastRandom-NoCache (10000x) = 39541 ticks elapsed (17ms) lowest [Different machine]