PHP: How to generate a random, unique, alphanumeric string for use in a secret link?

Question

How would it be possible to generate a random, unique string using numbers and letters for use in a verify link? Like when you create an account on a website, and it sends y

Answer 1

This function will generate a random key using numbers and letters:

function random_string($length) {
    $key = '';
    $keys = array_merge(range(0, 9), range('a', 'z'));

    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $key .= $keys[array_rand($keys)];
    }

    return $key;
}

echo random_string(50);

Example output:

zsd16xzv3jsytnp87tk7ygv73k8zmr0ekh6ly7mxaeyeh46oe8

Answer 2

You can use UUID(Universally Unique Identifier), it can be used for any purpose, from user authentication string to payment transaction id.

A UUID is a 16-octet (128-bit) number. In its canonical form, a UUID is represented by 32 hexadecimal digits, displayed in five groups separated by hyphens, in the form 8-4-4-4-12 for a total of 36 characters (32 alphanumeric characters and four hyphens).

function generate_uuid() {
    return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
        mt_rand( 0, 0x0C2f ) | 0x4000,
        mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,
        mt_rand( 0, 0x2Aff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffD3 ), mt_rand( 0, 0xff4B )
    );

}

//calling funtion

$transationID = generate_uuid();

some example outputs will be like:

E302D66D-87E3-4450-8CB6-17531895BF14
22D288BC-7289-442B-BEEA-286777D559F2
51B4DE29-3B71-4FD2-9E6C-071703E1FF31
3777C8C6-9FF5-4C78-AAA2-08A47F555E81
54B91C72-2CF4-4501-A6E9-02A60DCBAE4C
60F75C7C-1AE3-417B-82C8-14D456542CD7
8DE0168D-01D3-4502-9E59-10D665CEBCB2

hope it helps someone in future :)

Answer 3

For really random strings, you can use

<?php

echo md5(microtime(true).mt_Rand());

outputs :

40a29479ec808ad4bcff288a48a25d5c

so even if you try to generate string multiple times at exact same time, you will get different output.

Answer 4

If you want to generate a unique string in PHP, try following.

md5(uniqid().mt_rand());

In this,

uniqid() - It will generate unique string. This function returns timestamp based unique identifier as a string.

mt_rand() - Generate random number.

md5() - It will generate the hash string.

Answer 5

Scott, yes you are very write and good solution! Thanks.

I am also required to generate unique API token for my each user. Following is my approach, i used user information (Userid and Username):

public function generateUniqueToken($userid, $username){

        $rand = mt_rand(100,999);
    $md5 = md5($userid.'!(&^ 532567_465 ///'.$username);

    $md53 = substr($md5,0,3);
    $md5_remaining = substr($md5,3);

    $md5 = $md53. $rand. $userid. $md5_remaining;

    return $md5;
}

Please have a look and let me know if any improvement i can do. Thanks

Answer 6

we can use this two line of code to generate unique string have tested around 10000000 times of iteration

  $sffledStr= str_shuffle('abscdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890!@#$%^&*()_-+');
    $uniqueString = md5(time().$sffledStr);