Random Number and String Generators

[BillG]

Hi,
Does anyone know of a site or have code for a function that will generate a
random string or random number?
I need one where I can tell it what type of value I need and where I can set
the length of the desired output.

Thanks

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

On Aug 22, 9:47 am, "BillG" <[e-mail]:

Does anyone know of a site or have code for a function that will generate a
random string or random number?
I need one where I can tell it what type of value I need and where I can set
the length of the desired output.

Well, System.Random is the normal random number generator to use
in .NET. It will give you numbers - from there it's easy to create
random strings.

You should only create a single instance of System.Random and reuse it
rather than creating a new one each time you need it, by the way -
otherwise you may get repeated patterns because the instance is
initialized with the current time as the seed.

Jon

[=?Utf-8?B?WWFyb24gS2Fybmk=?=]

Hello,

Take a look.

/// Verify the random string
public string RandomString
{
get
{
string str = "";
while (true)
{
str = InternalRandomString;

if (! m_lastRandomString.Contains(str))
{
m_lastRandomString.Add( str);
break;
}
}
return str;
}
}

/// <summary>
/// Generates a m_random string with the given length
/// </summary>
/// <returns>Random string</returns>
private string InternalRandomString
{
get
{
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();

char ch;

int size = m_random.Next(2 , 8);

for (int i = 0 ; i < size ; i++)
{
ch = Convert.ToChar(m_random.Next(97 , 122));

builder.Append(ch);
}

return builder.ToString();
}
}
--
Sincerely
Yaron Karni
http://dotnetbible.blogspot.com/
"BillG" wrote:

Hi,
Does anyone know of a site or have code for a function that will generate a
random string or random number?
I need one where I can tell it what type of value I need and where I can set
the length of the desired output.

Thanks

[BillG]

The repeated pattern was what I was getting. How can I go about stopping
this from happening?

I've got the random generators in a separate C# file from rest of code, with
intention of using it in other apps if needed.

Tried to add the 'Random r = new Random();' to top of file just inside the
public class section but couldn't get it to be seen in the procedures within
it.

thanks

"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk***@pobox.comwrote in message
news:11**********************@x35g2000prf.googlegr oups.com...

On Aug 22, 9:47 am, "BillG" <[e-mail]:

>Does anyone know of a site or have code for a function that will generate
a
random string or random number?
I need one where I can tell it what type of value I need and where I can
set
the length of the desired output.

Well, System.Random is the normal random number generator to use
in .NET. It will give you numbers - from there it's easy to create
random strings.

You should only create a single instance of System.Random and reuse it
rather than creating a new one each time you need it, by the way -
otherwise you may get repeated patterns because the instance is
initialized with the current time as the seed.

Jon

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

On Aug 22, 10:38 am, "BillG" <[e-mail]:

The repeated pattern was what I was getting. How can I go about stopping
this from happening?

I've got the random generators in a separate C# file from rest of code, with
intention of using it in other apps if needed.

Tried to add the 'Random r = new Random();' to top of file just inside the
public class section but couldn't get it to be seen in the procedures within
it.

We'd have to see the exact code to know what's wrong.

You might want to use my StaticRandom class - see
http://pobox.com/~skeet/csharp/miscu...ticrandom.html
and
http://pobox.com/~skeet/csharp/miscutil

Jon

[joachim]

In response to your original question

>Does anyone know of a site or have code for a function that will generate a
random string or random number?

http://www.random.org/

>I need one where I can tell it what type of value I need and where I can set
the length of the desired output.

and here is the interface:
http://www.random.org/clients/http/

Regards,
Joachim

[BillG]

Here is the code I am using to generate random strings

public static string RandomString(int size, string legalChars)
{
Random r = new Random(1);
//string legalChars =
"123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxzy";//ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXZY";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
sb.Append(legalChars.Substring(r.Next(0, legalChars.Length -
1), 1));
return sb.ToString();
}

Thanks


"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk***@pobox.comwrote in message
news:11*********************@x35g2000prf.googlegro ups.com...

On Aug 22, 10:38 am, "BillG" <[e-mail]:

>The repeated pattern was what I was getting. How can I go about stopping
this from happening?

I've got the random generators in a separate C# file from rest of code,
with
intention of using it in other apps if needed.

Tried to add the 'Random r = new Random();' to top of file just inside
the
public class section but couldn't get it to be seen in the procedures
within
it.

We'd have to see the exact code to know what's wrong.

You might want to use my StaticRandom class - see
http://pobox.com/~skeet/csharp/miscu...ticrandom.html
and
http://pobox.com/~skeet/csharp/miscutil

Jon

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

On Aug 22, 3:15 pm, "BillG" <[e-mail]:

Here is the code I am using to generate random strings

public static string RandomString(int size, string legalChars)
{
Random r = new Random(1);
//string legalChars =
"123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxzy";//ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXZY";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
sb.Append(legalChars.Substring(r.Next(0, legalChars.Length -
1), 1));
return sb.ToString();
}

You're specifying the same seed every time, so it will always generate
the same string.

Additionally, you're never going to see a "Z" in the string. You
should just use:

sb.Append(legalChars[r.Next(legalChars.Length)]);

Jon