Generate random string/characters in JavaScript

Question

I want a 5 character string composed of characters picked randomly from the set [a-zA-Z0-9].

What\'s the best way to do this with JavaScript?

Answer 1

Here's the method I created.
It will create a string containing both uppercase and lowercase characters.
In addition I've included the function that will created an alphanumeric string too.

Working examples:
http://jsfiddle.net/greatbigmassive/vhsxs/ (alpha only)
http://jsfiddle.net/greatbigmassive/PJwg8/ (alphanumeric)

function randString(x){
    var s = "";
    while(s.length<x&&x>0){
        var r = Math.random();
        s+= String.fromCharCode(Math.floor(r*26) + (r>0.5?97:65));
    }
    return s;
}

Upgrade July 2015
This does the same thing but makes more sense and includes all letters.

var s = "";
while(s.length<x&&x>0){
    v = Math.random()<0.5?32:0;
    s += String.fromCharCode(Math.round(Math.random()*((122-v)-(97-v))+(97-v)));
}

Answer 2

Improved @Andrew's answer above :

Array.from({ length : 1 }, () => Math.random().toString(36)[2]).join('');

Base 36 conversion of the random number is inconsistent, so selecting a single indice fixes that. You can change the length for a string with the exact length desired.

Answer 3

Something like this should work

function randomString(len, charSet) {
    charSet = charSet || 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';
    var randomString = '';
    for (var i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        var randomPoz = Math.floor(Math.random() * charSet.length);
        randomString += charSet.substring(randomPoz,randomPoz+1);
    }
    return randomString;
}

Call with default charset [a-zA-Z0-9] or send in your own:

var randomValue = randomString(5);

var randomValue = randomString(5, 'PICKCHARSFROMTHISSET');

Answer 4

Here are some easy one liners. Change new Array(5) to set the length.

Including 0-9a-z

new Array(5).join().replace(/(.|$)/g, function(){return ((Math.random()*36)|0).toString(36);})

Including 0-9a-zA-Z

new Array(5).join().replace(/(.|$)/g, function(){return ((Math.random()*36)|0).toString(36)[Math.random()<.5?"toString":"toUpperCase"]();});

Answer 5

Math.random is bad for this kind of thing

Option 1

If you're able to do this server-side, just use the crypto module -

var crypto = require("crypto");
var id = crypto.randomBytes(20).toString('hex');

// "bb5dc8842ca31d4603d6aa11448d1654"

The resulting string will be twice as long as the random bytes you generate; each byte encoded to hex is 2 characters. 20 bytes will be 40 characters of hex.

---

Option 2

If you have to do this client-side, perhaps try the uuid module -

var uuid = require("uuid");
var id = uuid.v4();

// "110ec58a-a0f2-4ac4-8393-c866d813b8d1"

---

Option 3

If you have to do this client-side and you don't have to support old browsers, you can do it without dependencies -

// dec2hex :: Integer -> String
// i.e. 0-255 -> '00'-'ff'
function dec2hex (dec) {
  return dec < 10
    ? '0' + String(dec)
    : dec.toString(16)
}

// generateId :: Integer -> String
function generateId (len) {
  var arr = new Uint8Array((len || 40) / 2)
  window.crypto.getRandomValues(arr)
  return Array.from(arr, dec2hex).join('')
}

console.log(generateId())
// "82defcf324571e70b0521d79cce2bf3fffccd69"

console.log(generateId(20))
// "c1a050a4cd1556948d41"

---

For more information on crypto.getRandomValues -

The crypto.getRandomValues() method lets you get cryptographically strong random values. The array given as the parameter is filled with random numbers (random in its cryptographic meaning).

Here's a little console example -

> var arr = new Uint8Array(4) # make array of 4 bytes (values 0-255)
> arr
Uint8Array(4) [ 0, 0, 0, 0 ]

> window.crypto
Crypto { subtle: SubtleCrypto }

> window.crypto.getRandomValues()
TypeError: Crypto.getRandomValues requires at least 1 argument, but only 0 were passed

> window.crypto.getRandomValues(arr)
Uint8Array(4) [ 235, 229, 94, 228 ]

For IE11 support you can use -

(window.crypto || window.msCrypto).getRandomValues(arr)

For browser coverage see https://caniuse.com/#feat=getrandomvalues

Answer 6

function randomString (strLength, charSet) {
    var result = [];

    strLength = strLength || 5;
    charSet = charSet || 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';

    while (--strLength) {
        result.push(charSet.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * charSet.length)));
    }

    return result.join('');
}

This is as clean as it will get. It is fast too, http://jsperf.com/ay-random-string.