How to generate a random alpha-numeric string

Algorithm

To generate a random string, concatenate characters drawn randomly from the set of acceptable symbols until the string reaches the desired length.

Implementation

Here's some fairly simple and very flexible code for generating random identifiers. Read the information that follows for important application notes.

public class RandomString {

    /**
     * Generate a random string.
     */
    public String nextString() {
        for (int idx = 0; idx < buf.length; ++idx)
            buf[idx] = symbols[random.nextInt(symbols.length)];
        return new String(buf);
    }

    public static final String upper = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";

    public static final String lower = upper.toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT);

    public static final String digits = "0123456789";

    public static final String alphanum = upper + lower + digits;

    private final Random random;

    private final char[] symbols;

    private final char[] buf;

    public RandomString(int length, Random random, String symbols) {
        if (length < 1) throw new IllegalArgumentException();
        if (symbols.length() < 2) throw new IllegalArgumentException();
        this.random = Objects.requireNonNull(random);
        this.symbols = symbols.toCharArray();
        this.buf = new char[length];
    }

    /**
     * Create an alphanumeric string generator.
     */
    public RandomString(int length, Random random) {
        this(length, random, alphanum);
    }

    /**
     * Create an alphanumeric strings from a secure generator.
     */
    public RandomString(int length) {
        this(length, new SecureRandom());
    }

    /**
     * Create session identifiers.
     */
    public RandomString() {
        this(21);
    }

}

Usage examples

Create an insecure generator for 8-character identifiers:

RandomString gen = new RandomString(8, ThreadLocalRandom.current());

Create a secure generator for session identifiers:

RandomString session = new RandomString();

Create a generator with easy-to-read codes for printing. The strings are longer than full alphanumeric strings to compensate for using fewer symbols:

String easy = RandomString.digits + "ACEFGHJKLMNPQRUVWXYabcdefhijkprstuvwx";
RandomString tickets = new RandomString(23, new SecureRandom(), easy);

Use as session identifiers

Generating session identifiers that are likely to be unique is not good enough, or you could just use a simple counter. Attackers hijack sessions when predictable identifiers are used.

There is tension between length and security. Shorter identifiers are easier to guess, because there are fewer possibilities. But longer identifiers consume more storage and bandwidth. A larger set of symbols helps, but might cause encoding problems if identifiers are included in URLs or re-entered by hand.

The underlying source of randomness, or entropy, for session identifiers should come from a random number generator designed for cryptography. However, initializing these generators can sometimes be computationally expensive or slow, so effort should be made to re-use them when possible.

Use as object identifiers

Not every application requires security. Random assignment can be an efficient way for multiple entities to generate identifiers in a shared space without any coordination or partitioning. Coordination can be slow, especially in a clustered or distributed environment, and splitting up a space causes problems when entities end up with shares that are too small or too big.

Identifiers generated without taking measures to make them unpredictable should be protected by other means if an attacker might be able to view and manipulate them, as happens in most web applications. There should be a separate authorization system that protects objects whose identifier can be guessed by an attacker without access permission.

Care must be also be taken to use identifiers that are long enough to make collisions unlikely given the anticipated total number of identifiers. This is referred to as "the birthday paradox." The probability of a collision, p, is approximately n²/(2q^x), where n is the number of identifiers actually generated, q is the number of distinct symbols in the alphabet, and x is the length of the identifiers. This should be a very small number, like 2^‑50 or less.

Working this out shows that the chance of collision among 500k 15-character identifiers is about 2^‑52, which is probably less likely than undetected errors from cosmic rays, etc.

Comparison with UUIDs

According to their specification, UUIDs are not designed to be unpredictable, and should not be used as session identifiers.

UUIDs in their standard format take a lot of space: 36 characters for only 122 bits of entropy. (Not all bits of a "random" UUID are selected randomly.) A randomly chosen alphanumeric string packs more entropy in just 21 characters.

UUIDs are not flexible; they have a standardized structure and layout. This is their chief virtue as well as their main weakness. When collaborating with an outside party, the standardization offered by UUIDs may be helpful. For purely internal use, they can be inefficient.

Java supplies a way of doing this directly. If you don't want the dashes, they are easy to strip out. Just use uuid.replace("-", "")

import java.util.UUID;

public class randomStringGenerator {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(generateString());
    }

    public static String generateString() {
        String uuid = UUID.randomUUID().toString();
        return "uuid = " + uuid;
    }
}

Output

uuid = 2d7428a6-b58c-4008-8575-f05549f16316

static final String AB = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
static SecureRandom rnd = new SecureRandom();

String randomString(int len){
   StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(len);
   for(int i = 0; i < len; i++)
      sb.append(AB.charAt(rnd.nextInt(AB.length())));
   return sb.toString();
}

If you're happy to use Apache classes, you could use org.apache.commons.text.RandomStringGenerator (Apache Commons Text).

Example:

RandomStringGenerator randomStringGenerator =
        new RandomStringGenerator.Builder()
                .withinRange('0', 'z')
                .filteredBy(CharacterPredicates.LETTERS, CharacterPredicates.DIGITS)
                .build();
randomStringGenerator.generate(12); // toUpperCase() if you want

Since Apache Commons Lang 3.6, RandomStringUtils is deprecated.

Using Dollar should be as simple as:

// "0123456789" + "ABCDE...Z"
String validCharacters = $('0', '9').join() + $('A', 'Z').join();

String randomString(int length) {
    return $(validCharacters).shuffle().slice(length).toString();
}

@Test
public void buildFiveRandomStrings() {
    for (int i : $(5)) {
        System.out.println(randomString(12));
    }
}

It outputs something like this:

DKL1SBH9UJWC
JH7P0IT21EA5
5DTI72EO6SFU
HQUMJTEBNF7Y
1HCR6SKYWGT7

Here it is in Java:

import static java.lang.Math.round;
import static java.lang.Math.random;
import static java.lang.Math.pow;
import static java.lang.Math.abs;
import static java.lang.Math.min;
import static org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.leftPad

public class RandomAlphaNum {
  public static String gen(int length) {
    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
    for (int i = length; i > 0; i -= 12) {
      int n = min(12, abs(i));
      sb.append(leftPad(Long.toString(round(random() * pow(36, n)), 36), n, '0'));
    }
    return sb.toString();
  }
}

Here's a sample run:

scala> RandomAlphaNum.gen(42)
res3: java.lang.String = uja6snx21bswf9t89s00bxssu8g6qlu16ffzqaxxoy

import java.util.Random;

public class passGen{
    // Version 1.0
    private static final String dCase = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
    private static final String uCase = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
    private static final String sChar = "!@#$%^&*";
    private static final String intChar = "0123456789";
    private static Random r = new Random();
    private static StringBuilder pass = new StringBuilder();

    public static void main (String[] args) {
        System.out.println ("Generating pass...");
        while (pass.length () != 16){
            int rPick = r.nextInt(4);
            if (rPick == 0){
                int spot = r.nextInt(26);
                pass.append(dCase.charAt(spot));
            } else if (rPick == 1) {
                int spot = r.nextInt(26);
                pass.append(uCase.charAt(spot));
            } else if (rPick == 2) {
                int spot = r.nextInt(8);
                pass.append(sChar.charAt(spot));
            } else {
                int spot = r.nextInt(10);
                pass.append(intChar.charAt(spot));
            }
        }
        System.out.println ("Generated Pass: " + pass.toString());
    }
}

This just adds the password into the string and... yeah, it works well. Check it out... It is very simple; I wrote it.

I found this solution that generates a random hex encoded string. The provided unit test seems to hold up to my primary use case. Although, it is slightly more complex than some of the other answers provided.

/**
 * Generate a random hex encoded string token of the specified length
 *  
 * @param length
 * @return random hex string
 */
public static synchronized String generateUniqueToken(Integer length){ 
    byte random[] = new byte[length];
    Random randomGenerator = new Random();
    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();

    randomGenerator.nextBytes(random);

    for (int j = 0; j < random.length; j++) {
        byte b1 = (byte) ((random[j] & 0xf0) >> 4);
        byte b2 = (byte) (random[j] & 0x0f);
        if (b1 < 10)
            buffer.append((char) ('0' + b1));
        else
            buffer.append((char) ('A' + (b1 - 10)));
        if (b2 < 10)
            buffer.append((char) ('0' + b2));
        else
            buffer.append((char) ('A' + (b2 - 10)));
    }
    return (buffer.toString());
}

@Test
public void testGenerateUniqueToken(){
    Set set = new HashSet();
    String token = null;
    int size = 16;

    /* Seems like we should be able to generate 500K tokens 
     * without a duplicate 
     */
    for (int i=0; i<500000; i++){
        token = Utility.generateUniqueToken(size);

        if (token.length() != size * 2){
            fail("Incorrect length");
        } else if (set.contains(token)) {
            fail("Duplicate token generated");
        } else{
            set.add(token);
        }
    }
}

I'm using a library from Apache Commons to generate an alphanumeric string:

import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomStringUtils;

String keyLength = 20;
RandomStringUtils.randomAlphanumeric(keylength);

It's fast and simple!

I think this is the smallest solution here, or nearly one of the smallest:

 public String generateRandomString(int length) {
    String randomString = "";

    final char[] chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz01234567890".toCharArray();
    final Random random = new Random();
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        randomString = randomString + chars[random.nextInt(chars.length)];
    }

    return randomString;
}

The code works just fine. If you are using this method, I recommend you to use more than 10 characters. A collision happens at 5 characters / 30362 iterations. This took 9 seconds.

public class Utils {
    private final Random RANDOM = new SecureRandom();
    private final String ALPHABET = "0123456789QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNMqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm";

    private String generateRandomString(int length) {
        StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer(length);
        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            buffer.append(ALPHABET.charAt(RANDOM.nextInt(ALPHABET.length())));
        }
        return new String(buffer);
    } 
}

public static String getRandomString(int length) {
    char[] chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST".toCharArray();

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    Random random = new Random();
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        char c = chars[random.nextInt(chars.length)];
        sb.append(c);
    }
    String randomStr = sb.toString();

    return randomStr;
}

I have developed an application to develop an autogenerated alphanumberic string for my project. In this string, the first three characters are alphabetical and the next seven are integers.

public class AlphaNumericGenerator {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        java.util.Random r = new java.util.Random();
        int i = 1, n = 0;
        char c;
        String str = "";
        for (int t = 0; t < 3; t++) {
            while (true) {
                i = r.nextInt(10);
                if (i > 5 && i < 10) {

                    if (i == 9) {
                        i = 90;
                        n = 90;
                        break;
                    }
                    if (i != 90) {
                        n = i * 10 + r.nextInt(10);
                        while (n < 65) {
                            n = i * 10 + r.nextInt(10);
                        }
                    }
                    break;
                }
            }
            c = (char)n;

            str = String.valueOf(c) + str;
        }

        while(true){
            i = r.nextInt(10000000);
            if(i > 999999)
                break;
        }
        str = str + i;
        System.out.println(str);
    }
}

Here is a Java 8 solution based on streams.

    public String generateString(String alphabet, int length) {
        return generateString(alphabet, length, new SecureRandom()::nextInt);
    }

    // nextInt = bound -> n in [0, bound)
    public String generateString(String source, int length, IntFunction<Integer> nextInt) {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        IntStream.generate(source::length)
                .boxed()
                .limit(length)
                .map(nextInt::apply)
                .map(source::charAt)
                .forEach(sb::append);

        return sb.toString();
    }

Use it like

String alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
int length = 12;
String generated = generateString(alphabet, length);
System.out.println(generated);

The function nextInt should accept an int bound and return a random number between 0 and bound - 1.

public static String RandomAlphanum(int length)
{
    String charstring = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
    String randalphanum = "";
    double randroll;
    String randchar;
    for (double i = 0; i < length; i++)
    {
        randroll = Math.random();
        randchar = "";
        for (int j = 1; j <= 35; j++)
        {
            if (randroll <= (1.0 / 36.0 * j))
            {
                randchar = Character.toString(charstring.charAt(j - 1));
                break;
            }
        }
        randalphanum += randchar;
    }
    return randalphanum;
}

I used a very primitive algorithm using Math.random(). To increase randomness, you can directly implement the util.Date class. Nevertheless, it works.

Efficient and short.

/**
 * Utility class for generating random Strings.
 */
public interface RandomUtil {

    int    DEF_COUNT = 20;
    Random RANDOM    = new SecureRandom();

    /**
     * Generate a password.
     *
     * @return the generated password
     */
    static String generatePassword() {
        return generate(true, true);
    }

    /**
     * Generate an activation key.
     *
     * @return the generated activation key
     */
    static String generateActivationKey() {
        return generate(false, true);
    }

    /**
     * Generate a reset key.
     *
     * @return the generated reset key
     */
    static String generateResetKey() {
        return generate(false, true);
    }

    static String generate(boolean letters, boolean numbers) {
        int
            start = ' ',
            end   = 'z' + 1,
            count = DEF_COUNT,
            gap   = end - start;
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(count);

        while (count-- != 0) {
            int codePoint = RANDOM.nextInt(gap) + start;

            switch (getType(codePoint)) {
                case UNASSIGNED:
                case PRIVATE_USE:
                case SURROGATE:
                    count++;
                    continue;
            }

            int numberOfChars = charCount(codePoint);

            if (count == 0 && numberOfChars > 1) {
                count++;
                continue;
            }

            if (letters && isLetter(codePoint)
                || numbers && isDigit(codePoint)
                || !letters && !numbers) {

                builder.appendCodePoint(codePoint);
                if (numberOfChars == 2)
                    count--;
            }
            else
                count++;
        }
        return builder.toString();
    }
}

I am using a very simple solution using Java 8. Just customize it according to your needs.

...
import java.security.SecureRandom;
...

//Generate a random String of length between 10 to 20.
//Length is also randomly generated here.
SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();

String sampleSet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789_";

int stringLength = random.ints(1, 10, 21).mapToObj(x -> x).reduce((a, b) -> a).get();

String randomString = random.ints(stringLength, 0, sampleSet.length() - 1)
        .mapToObj(x -> sampleSet.charAt(x))
        .collect(Collector
            .of(StringBuilder::new, StringBuilder::append,
                StringBuilder::append, StringBuilder::toString));

We can use this to generate an alphanumeric random String like this (the returned String will mandatorily have some non-numeric characters as well as some numeric characters):

public String generateRandomString() {
            
    String sampleSet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_";
    String sampleSetNumeric = "0123456789";
    
    String randomString = getRandomString(sampleSet, 10, 21);
    String randomStringNumeric = getRandomString(sampleSetNumeric, 10, 21);
    
    randomString = randomString + randomStringNumeric;
    
    //Convert String to List<Character>
    List<Character> list = randomString.chars()
            .mapToObj(x -> (char)x)
            .collect(Collectors.toList());
    
    Collections.shuffle(list);
    
    //This is needed to force a non-numeric character as the first String
    //Skip this for() if you don't need this logic

    for(;;) {
        if(Character.isDigit(list.get(0))) Collections.shuffle(list);
        else break;
    }
    
    //Convert List<Character> to String
    randomString = list.stream()
            .map(String::valueOf)
            .collect(Collectors.joining());
    
    return randomString;
    
}

//Generate a random number between the lower bound (inclusive) and upper bound (exclusive)
private int getRandomLength(int min, int max) {
    SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
    return random.ints(1, min, max).mapToObj(x -> x).reduce((a, b) -> a).get();
}

//Generate a random String from the given sample string, having a random length between the lower bound (inclusive) and upper bound (exclusive)
private String getRandomString(String sampleSet, int min, int max) {
    SecureRandom random = new SecureRandom();
    return random.ints(getRandomLength(min, max), 0, sampleSet.length() - 1)
    .mapToObj(x -> sampleSet.charAt(x))
    .collect(Collector
        .of(StringBuilder::new, StringBuilder::append,
            StringBuilder::append, StringBuilder::toString));
}