Generate random alphanumeric string in Swift

Question

How can I generate a random alphanumeric string in Swift?

Answer 1

You may use it also in the following way:

extension String {

    static func random(length: Int = 20) -> String {

        let base = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
        var randomString: String = ""

        for _ in 0..<length {

            let randomValue = arc4random_uniform(UInt32(base.characters.count))
            randomString += "\(base[base.startIndex.advancedBy(Int(randomValue))])"
        }

        return randomString
    }
}

Simple usage:

let randomString = String.random()

Swift 3 Syntax:

extension String {

    static func random(length: Int = 20) -> String {
        let base = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
        var randomString: String = ""

        for _ in 0..<length {
            let randomValue = arc4random_uniform(UInt32(base.characters.count))
            randomString += "\(base[base.index(base.startIndex, offsetBy: Int(randomValue))])"
        }
        return randomString
    }
}

Swift 4 Syntax:

extension String {

    static func random(length: Int = 20) -> String {
        let base = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
        var randomString: String = ""

        for _ in 0..<length {
            let randomValue = arc4random_uniform(UInt32(base.count))
            randomString += "\(base[base.index(base.startIndex, offsetBy: Int(randomValue))])"
        }
        return randomString
    }
}

Answer 2

This is the Swift-est solution I could come up with. Swift 3.0

extension String {
    static func random(length: Int) -> String {
        let letters = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
        let randomLength = UInt32(letters.characters.count)

        let randomString: String = (0 ..< length).reduce(String()) { accum, _ in
            let randomOffset = arc4random_uniform(randomLength)
            let randomIndex = letters.index(letters.startIndex, offsetBy: Int(randomOffset))
            return accum.appending(String(letters[randomIndex]))
        }

        return randomString
    } 
}

Answer 3

Loop free, though it is limited to 43 characters. If you need more, it can be modified. This approach has two advantages over solely using a UUID:

1. Greater Entropy by using lower case letters, as UUID() only generates upper case letters
2. A UUID is at most 36 characters long (including the 4 hyphens), but only 32 characters long without. Should you need something longer, or not want hyphens included, the use of the base64EncodedString handles this

Also, this function makes use of a UInt to avoid negative numbers.

 func generateRandom(size: UInt) -> String {
        let prefixSize = Int(min(size, 43))
        let uuidString = UUID().uuidString.replacingOccurrences(of: "-", with: "")
        return String(Data(uuidString.utf8)
            .base64EncodedString()
            .replacingOccurrences(of: "=", with: "")
            .prefix(prefixSize))
    }

Calling it in a loop to check output:

for _ in 0...10 {
    print(generateRandom(size: 32))
}

Which produces:

Nzk3NjgzMTdBQ0FBNDFCNzk2MDRENzZF
MUI5RURDQzE1RTdCNDA3RDg2MTI4QkQx
M0I3MjJBRjVFRTYyNDFCNkI5OUM1RUVC
RDA1RDZGQ0IzQjI1NDdGREI3NDgxM0Mx
NjcyNUQyOThCNzhCNEVFQTk1RTQ3NTIy
MDkwRTQ0RjFENUFGNEFDOTgyQTUxODI0
RDU2OTNBOUJGMDE4NDhEODlCNEQ1NjZG
RjM2MTUxRjM4RkY3NDU2OUFDOTI0Nzkz
QzUwOTE1N0U1RDVENDE4OEE5NTM2Rjcy
Nzk4QkMxNUJEMjYwNDJDQjhBQkY5QkY5
ODhFNjU0MDVEMUI2NEI5QUIyNjNCNkVF

Answer 4

for Swift 3.0

func randomString(_ length: Int) -> String {

    let letters : NSString = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
    let len = UInt32(letters.length)

    var randomString = ""

    for _ in 0 ..< length {
        let rand = arc4random_uniform(len)
        var nextChar = letters.character(at: Int(rand))
        randomString += NSString(characters: &nextChar, length: 1) as String
    }

    return randomString
}

Answer 5

Swift 4.2 Update

Swift 4.2 introduced major improvements in dealing with random values and elements. You can read more about those improvements here. Here is the method reduced to a few lines:

func randomString(length: Int) -> String {
  let letters = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
  return String((0..<length).map{ _ in letters.randomElement()! })
}

Swift 3.0 Update

func randomString(length: Int) -> String {

    let letters : NSString = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"
    let len = UInt32(letters.length)

    var randomString = ""

    for _ in 0 ..< length {
        let rand = arc4random_uniform(len)
        var nextChar = letters.character(at: Int(rand))
        randomString += NSString(characters: &nextChar, length: 1) as String
    }

    return randomString
}

Original answer:

func randomStringWithLength (len : Int) -> NSString {

    let letters : NSString = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"

    var randomString : NSMutableString = NSMutableString(capacity: len)

    for (var i=0; i < len; i++){
        var length = UInt32 (letters.length)
        var rand = arc4random_uniform(length)
        randomString.appendFormat("%C", letters.characterAtIndex(Int(rand)))
    }

    return randomString
}

Answer 6

If you just need a unique identifier, UUID().uuidString may serve your purposes.