Generating random strings with T-SQL

Question

If you wanted to generate a pseudorandom alphanumeric string using T-SQL, how would you do it? How would you exclude characters like dollar signs, dashes, and slashes from

Answer 1

This worked for me: I needed to generate just three random alphanumeric characters for an ID, but it could work for any length up to 15 or so.

declare @DesiredLength as int = 3;
select substring(replace(newID(),'-',''),cast(RAND()*(31-@DesiredLength) as int),@DesiredLength);

Answer 2

I use this procedure that I developed simply stipluate the charaters you want to be able to display in the input variables, you can define the length too. Hope this formats well, I am new to stack overflow.

IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE type = 'P' AND object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'GenerateARandomString'))
DROP PROCEDURE GenerateARandomString
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE GenerateARandomString
(
     @DESIREDLENGTH         INTEGER = 100,                  
     @NUMBERS               VARCHAR(50) 
        = '0123456789',     
     @ALPHABET              VARCHAR(100) 
        ='ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz',
     @SPECIALS              VARCHAR(50) 
        = '_=+-$£%^&*()"!@~#:', 
     @RANDOMSTRING          VARCHAR(8000)   OUT 

)

AS

BEGIN
    -- Author David Riley
    -- Version 1.0 
    -- You could alter to one big string .e.e numebrs , alpha special etc
    -- added for more felxibility in case I want to extend i.e put logic  in for 3 numbers, 2 pecials 3 numbers etc
    -- for now just randomly pick one of them

    DECLARE @SWAP                   VARCHAR(8000);      -- Will be used as a tempoary buffer 
    DECLARE @SELECTOR               INTEGER = 0;

    DECLARE @CURRENTLENGHT          INTEGER = 0;
    WHILE @CURRENTLENGHT < @DESIREDLENGTH
    BEGIN

        -- Do we want a number, special character or Alphabet Randonly decide?
        SET @SELECTOR  = CAST(ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID())) % 3 AS INTEGER);   -- Always three 1 number , 2 alphaBET , 3 special;
        IF @SELECTOR = 0
        BEGIN
            SET @SELECTOR = 3
        END;

        -- SET SWAP VARIABLE AS DESIRED
        SELECT @SWAP = CASE WHEN @SELECTOR = 1 THEN @NUMBERS WHEN @SELECTOR = 2 THEN @ALPHABET ELSE @SPECIALS END;

        -- MAKE THE SELECTION
        SET @SELECTOR  = CAST(ABS(CHECKSUM(NEWID())) % LEN(@SWAP) AS INTEGER);
        IF @SELECTOR = 0
        BEGIN
            SET @SELECTOR = LEN(@SWAP)
        END;

        SET @RANDOMSTRING = ISNULL(@RANDOMSTRING,'') + SUBSTRING(@SWAP,@SELECTOR,1);
        SET @CURRENTLENGHT = LEN(@RANDOMSTRING);
    END;

END;

GO

DECLARE @RANDOMSTRING VARCHAR(8000)

EXEC GenerateARandomString @RANDOMSTRING = @RANDOMSTRING OUT

SELECT @RANDOMSTRING

Answer 3

For SQL Server 2016 and later, here is a really simple and relatively efficient expression to generate cryptographically random strings of a given byte length:

--Generates 36 bytes (48 characters) of base64 encoded random data
select r from OpenJson((select Crypt_Gen_Random(36) r for json path)) 
  with (r varchar(max))

Note that the byte length is not the same as the encoded size; use the following from this article to convert:

Bytes = 3 * (LengthInCharacters / 4) - Padding

Answer 4

I thought I'd share, or give back to the community ... It's ASCII based, and the solution is not perfect but it works quite well. Enjoy, Goran B.

/* 
-- predictable masking of ascii chars within a given decimal range
-- purpose: 
--    i needed an alternative to hashing alg. or uniqueidentifier functions
--    because i wanted to be able to revert to original char set if possible ("if", the operative word)
-- notes: wrap below in a scalar function if desired (i.e. recommended)
-- by goran biljetina (2014-02-25)
*/

declare 
@length int
,@position int
,@maskedString varchar(500)
,@inpString varchar(500)
,@offsetAsciiUp1 smallint
,@offsetAsciiDown1 smallint
,@ipOffset smallint
,@asciiHiBound smallint
,@asciiLoBound smallint


set @ipOffset=null
set @offsetAsciiUp1=1
set @offsetAsciiDown1=-1
set @asciiHiBound=126 --> up to and NOT including
set @asciiLoBound=31 --> up from and NOT including

SET @inpString = '{"config":"some string value", "boolAttr": true}'
SET @length = LEN(@inpString)

SET @position = 1
SET @maskedString = ''

--> MASK:
---------
WHILE (@position < @length+1) BEGIN
    SELECT @maskedString = @maskedString + 
    ISNULL(
        CASE 
        WHEN ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))>@asciiLoBound AND ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))<@asciiHiBound
         THEN
            CHAR(ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))+
            (case when @ipOffset is null then
            case when ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))%2=0 then @offsetAsciiUp1 else @offsetAsciiDown1 end
            else @ipOffset end))
        WHEN ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))<=@asciiLoBound
         THEN '('+CONVERT(varchar,ASCII(SUBSTRING(@Inpstring,@position,1))+1000)+')' --> wrap for decode
        WHEN ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))>=@asciiHiBound
         THEN '('+CONVERT(varchar,ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))+1000)+')' --> wrap for decode
        END
        ,'')
    SELECT @position = @position + 1
END

select @MaskedString


SET @inpString = @maskedString
SET @length = LEN(@inpString)

SET @position = 1
SET @maskedString = ''

--> UNMASK (Limited to within ascii lo-hi bound):
-------------------------------------------------
WHILE (@position < @length+1) BEGIN
    SELECT @maskedString = @maskedString + 
    ISNULL(
        CASE 
        WHEN ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))>@asciiLoBound AND ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))<@asciiHiBound
         THEN
            CHAR(ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))+
            (case when @ipOffset is null then
            case when ASCII(SUBSTRING(@inpString,@position,1))%2=1 then @offsetAsciiDown1 else @offsetAsciiUp1 end
            else @ipOffset*(-1) end))
        ELSE ''
        END
        ,'')
    SELECT @position = @position + 1
END

select @maskedString

Answer 5

I came across this blog post first, then came up with the following stored procedure for this that I'm using on a current project (sorry for the weird formatting):

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[SpGenerateRandomString]
@sLength tinyint = 10,
@randomString varchar(50) OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @counter tinyint
DECLARE @nextChar char(1)
SET @counter = 1
SET @randomString = ”

WHILE @counter <= @sLength
BEGIN
SELECT @nextChar = CHAR(48 + CONVERT(INT, (122-48+1)*RAND()))

IF ASCII(@nextChar) not in (58,59,60,61,62,63,64,91,92,93,94,95,96)
BEGIN
SELECT @randomString = @randomString + @nextChar
SET @counter = @counter + 1
END
END
END

Answer 6

Below are the way to Generate 4 Or 8 Characters Long Random Alphanumeric String in SQL

select LEFT(CONVERT(VARCHAR(36),NEWID()),4)+RIGHT(CONVERT(VARCHAR(36),NEWID()),4)

---

 SELECT RIGHT(REPLACE(CONVERT(VARCHAR(36),NEWID()),'-',''),8)