How can I generate random alphanumeric strings?

Question

How can I generate a random 8 character alphanumeric string in C#?

Answer 1

var chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"; var stringChars = new char[8]; var random = new Random();  for (int i = 0; i < stringChars.Length; i++) {     stringChars[i] = chars[random.Next(chars.Length)]; }  var finalString = new String(stringChars); 

Not as elegant as the Linq solution.

(Note: The use of the Random class makes this unsuitable for anything security related, such as creating passwords or tokens. Use the RNGCryptoServiceProvider class if you need a strong random number generator.)

Answer 2

I heard LINQ is the new black, so here's my attempt using LINQ:

private static Random random = new Random();  public static string RandomString(int length) {     const string chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";     return new string(Enumerable.Repeat(chars, length)         .Select(s => s[random.Next(s.Length)]).ToArray()); } 

(Note: The use of the Random class makes this unsuitable for anything security related, such as creating passwords or tokens. Use the RNGCryptoServiceProvider class if you need a strong random number generator.)