[java] How to generate a random string of 20 characters

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How to generate a random String in Java

I am wanting to generate a random string of 20 characters without using apache classes. I don't really care about whether is alphanumeric or not. Also, I am going to convert it to an array of bytes later FYI.

Thanks,

I'd use this approach:

String randomString(final int length) {
    Random r = new Random(); // perhaps make it a class variable so you don't make a new one every time
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        char c = (char)(r.nextInt((int)(Character.MAX_VALUE)));
        sb.append(c);
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

If you want a byte[] you can do this:

byte[] randomByteString(final int length) {
    Random r = new Random();
    byte[] result = new byte[length];
    for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        result[i] = r.nextByte();
    }
    return result;
}

Or you could do this

byte[] randomByteString(final int length) {
    Random r = new Random();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        char c = (char)(r.nextInt((int)(Character.MAX_VALUE)));
        sb.append(c);
    }
    return sb.toString().getBytes();
}

public String randomString(String chars, int length) {
  Random rand = new Random();
  StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder();
  for (int i=0; i<length; i++) {
    buf.append(chars.charAt(rand.nextInt(chars.length())));
  }
  return buf.toString();
}

You may use the class java.util.Random with method

char c = (char)(rnd.nextInt(128-32))+32 

20x to get Bytes, which you interpret as ASCII. If you're fine with ASCII.

32 is the offset, from where the characters are printable in general.