[c#] How can I generate random alphanumeric strings?

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

I know this one is not the best way. But you can try this.

string str = Path.GetRandomFileName(); //This method returns a random file name of 11 characters
str = str.Replace(".","");
Console.WriteLine("Random string: " + str);

We also use custom string random but we implemented is as a string's helper so it provides some flexibility...

public static string Random(this string chars, int length = 8)
{
    var randomString = new StringBuilder();
    var random = new Random();

    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
        randomString.Append(chars[random.Next(chars.Length)]);

    return randomString.ToString();
}

Usage

var random = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ".Random();

or

var random = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789".Random(16);

Try to combine two parts: unique (sequence, counter or date ) and random

public class RandomStringGenerator
{
    public static string Gen()
    {
        return ConvertToBase(DateTime.UtcNow.ToFileTimeUtc()) + GenRandomStrings(5); //keep length fixed at least of one part
    }

    private static string GenRandomStrings(int strLen)
    {
        var result = string.Empty;

        using (var gen = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
        {
            var data = new byte[1];

            while (result.Length < strLen)
            {
                gen.GetNonZeroBytes(data);
                int code = data[0];
                if (code > 48 && code < 57 || // 0-9
                    code > 65 && code < 90 || // A-Z
                    code > 97 && code < 122   // a-z
                )
                {
                    result += Convert.ToChar(code);
                }
            }

            return result;
        }
    }

    private static string ConvertToBase(long num, int nbase = 36)
    {
        const string chars = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"; //if you wish to make the algorithm more secure - change order of letter here

        // check if we can convert to another base
        if (nbase < 2 || nbase > chars.Length)
            return null;

        int r;
        var newNumber = string.Empty;

        // in r we have the offset of the char that was converted to the new base
        while (num >= nbase)
        {
            r = (int)(num % nbase);
            newNumber = chars[r] + newNumber;
            num = num / nbase;
        }
        // the last number to convert
        newNumber = chars[(int)num] + newNumber;

        return newNumber;
    }
}

Tests:

    [Test]
    public void Generator_Should_BeUnigue1()
    {
        //Given
        var loop = Enumerable.Range(0, 1000);
        //When
        var str = loop.Select(x=> RandomStringGenerator.Gen());
        //Then
        var distinct = str.Distinct();
        Assert.AreEqual(loop.Count(),distinct.Count()); // Or Assert.IsTrue(distinct.Count() < 0.95 * loop.Count())
    }

My simple one line code works for me :)

string  random = string.Join("", Guid.NewGuid().ToString("n").Take(8).Select(o => o));

Response.Write(random.ToUpper());
Response.Write(random.ToLower());

To expand on this for any length string

    public static string RandomString(int length)
    {
        //length = length < 0 ? length * -1 : length;
        var str = "";

        do 
        {
            str += Guid.NewGuid().ToString().Replace("-", "");
        }

        while (length > str.Length);

        return str.Substring(0, length);
    }

Very simple solution. It uses ASCII values and just generates "random" characters in between them.

public static class UsernameTools
{
    public static string GenerateRandomUsername(int length = 10)
    {
        Random random = new Random();
        StringBuilder sbuilder = new StringBuilder();
        for (int x = 0; x < length; ++x)
        {
            sbuilder.Append((char)random.Next(33, 126));
        }
        return sbuilder.ToString();
    }

}

public static class StringHelper
{
    private static readonly Random random = new Random();

    private const int randomSymbolsDefaultCount = 8;
    private const string availableChars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";

    private static int randomSymbolsIndex = 0;

    public static string GetRandomSymbols()
    {
        return GetRandomSymbols(randomSymbolsDefaultCount);
    }

    public static string GetRandomSymbols(int count)
    {
        var index = randomSymbolsIndex;
        var result = new string(
            Enumerable.Repeat(availableChars, count)
                      .Select(s => {
                          index += random.Next(s.Length);
                          if (index >= s.Length)
                              index -= s.Length;
                          return s[index];
                      })
                      .ToArray());
        randomSymbolsIndex = index;
        return result;
    }
}

Just some performance comparisons of the various answers in this thread:

Methods & Setup

// what's available
public static string possibleChars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
// optimized (?) what's available
public static char[] possibleCharsArray = possibleChars.ToCharArray();
// optimized (precalculated) count
public static int possibleCharsAvailable = possibleChars.Length;
// shared randomization thingy
public static Random random = new Random();


// http://stackoverflow.com/a/1344242/1037948
public string LinqIsTheNewBlack(int num) {
    return new string(
    Enumerable.Repeat(possibleCharsArray, num)
              .Select(s => s[random.Next(s.Length)])
              .ToArray());
}

// http://stackoverflow.com/a/1344258/1037948
public string ForLoop(int num) {
    var result = new char[num];
    while(num-- > 0) {
        result[num] = possibleCharsArray[random.Next(possibleCharsAvailable)];
    }
    return new string(result);
}

public string ForLoopNonOptimized(int num) {
    var result = new char[num];
    while(num-- > 0) {
        result[num] = possibleChars[random.Next(possibleChars.Length)];
    }
    return new string(result);
}

public string Repeat(int num) {
    return new string(new char[num].Select(o => possibleCharsArray[random.Next(possibleCharsAvailable)]).ToArray());
}

// http://stackoverflow.com/a/1518495/1037948
public string GenerateRandomString(int num) {
  var rBytes = new byte[num];
  random.NextBytes(rBytes);
  var rName = new char[num];
  while(num-- > 0)
    rName[num] = possibleCharsArray[rBytes[num] % possibleCharsAvailable];
  return new string(rName);
}

//SecureFastRandom - or SolidSwiftRandom
static string GenerateRandomString(int Length) //Configurable output string length
{
    byte[] rBytes = new byte[Length]; 
    char[] rName = new char[Length];
    SolidSwiftRandom.GetNextBytesWithMax(rBytes, biasZone);
    for (var i = 0; i < Length; i++)
    {
        rName[i] = charSet[rBytes[i] % charSet.Length];
    }
    return new string(rName);
}

Results

Tested in LinqPad. For string size of 10, generates:

• from Linq = chdgmevhcy [10]
• from Loop = gtnoaryhxr [10]
• from Select = rsndbztyby [10]
• from GenerateRandomString = owyefjjakj [10]
• from SecureFastRandom = VzougLYHYP [10]
• from SecureFastRandom-NoCache = oVQXNGmO1S [10]

And the performance numbers tend to vary slightly, very occasionally NonOptimized is actually faster, and sometimes ForLoop and GenerateRandomString switch who's in the lead.

• LinqIsTheNewBlack (10000x) = 96762 ticks elapsed (9.6762 ms)
• ForLoop (10000x) = 28970 ticks elapsed (2.897 ms)
• ForLoopNonOptimized (10000x) = 33336 ticks elapsed (3.3336 ms)
• Repeat (10000x) = 78547 ticks elapsed (7.8547 ms)
• GenerateRandomString (10000x) = 27416 ticks elapsed (2.7416 ms)
• SecureFastRandom (10000x) = 13176 ticks elapsed (5ms) lowest [Different machine]
• SecureFastRandom-NoCache (10000x) = 39541 ticks elapsed (17ms) lowest [Different machine]

If your values are not completely random, but in fact may depend on something - you may compute an md5 or sha1 hash of that 'somwthing' and then truncate it to whatever length you want.

Also you may generate and truncate a guid.

The main goals of my code are:

1. The distribution of strings is almost uniform (don't care about minor deviations, as long as they're small)
2. It outputs more than a few billion strings for each argument set. Generating an 8 character string (~47 bits of entropy) is meaningless if your PRNG only generates 2 billion (31 bits of entropy) different values.
3. It's secure, since I expect people to use this for passwords or other security tokens.

The first property is achieved by taking a 64 bit value modulo the alphabet size. For small alphabets (such as the 62 characters from the question) this leads to negligible bias. The second and third property are achieved by using RNGCryptoServiceProvider instead of System.Random.

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;

public static string GetRandomAlphanumericString(int length)
{
    const string alphanumericCharacters =
        "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" +
        "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" +
        "0123456789";
    return GetRandomString(length, alphanumericCharacters);
}

public static string GetRandomString(int length, IEnumerable<char> characterSet)
{
    if (length < 0)
        throw new ArgumentException("length must not be negative", "length");
    if (length > int.MaxValue / 8) // 250 million chars ought to be enough for anybody
        throw new ArgumentException("length is too big", "length");
    if (characterSet == null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException("characterSet");
    var characterArray = characterSet.Distinct().ToArray();
    if (characterArray.Length == 0)
        throw new ArgumentException("characterSet must not be empty", "characterSet");

    var bytes = new byte[length * 8];
    var result = new char[length];
    using (var cryptoProvider = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
    {
        cryptoProvider.GetBytes(bytes);
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
    {
        ulong value = BitConverter.ToUInt64(bytes, i * 8);
        result[i] = characterArray[value % (uint)characterArray.Length];
    }
    return new string(result);
}

For both crypto & noncrypto, efficiently:

private static readonly Random _random = new Random();

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length, string charset = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890") =>
    RandomString(_random.NextBytes, length, charset.ToCharArray());

public static string GenerateRandomCryptoString(int length, string charset = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890")
{
    using (var crypto = new System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
        return RandomString(crypto.GetBytes, length, charset.ToCharArray());
}

private static string RandomString(Action<byte[]> fillRandomBuffer, int length, char[] charset)
{
    if (length < 0)
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(length), $"{nameof(length)} must be greater or equal to 0");
    if (charset is null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(charset));
    if (charset.Length == 0)
        throw new ArgumentException($"{nameof(charset)} must contain at least 1 character", nameof(charset));

    var maxIdx = charset.Length;
    var chars = new char[length];
    var randomBuffer = new byte[length * 4];
    fillRandomBuffer(randomBuffer);

    for (var i = 0; i < length; i++)
        chars[i] = charset[BitConverter.ToUInt32(randomBuffer, i * 4) % maxIdx];

    return new string(chars);
}

Using generators & LINQ. Not the fastest option (especially because it doesn't generate all the bytes in one go) but pretty neat & extensible:

private static readonly Random _random = new Random();

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length, string charset = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890") =>
    new string(_random.GetGenerator().RandomChars(charset.ToCharArray()).Take(length).ToArray());

public static string GenerateRandomCryptoString(int length, string charset = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890")
{
    using (var crypto = new System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
        return new string(crypto.GetGenerator().RandomChars(charset.ToCharArray()).Take(length).ToArray());
}

public static IEnumerable<char> RandomChars(this Func<uint, IEnumerable<uint>> randomGenerator, char[] charset)
{
    if (charset is null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(charset));
    if (charset.Length == 0)
        throw new ArgumentException($"{nameof(charset)} must contain at least 1 character", nameof(charset));

    return randomGenerator((uint)charset.Length).Select(r => charset[r]);
}

public static Func<uint, IEnumerable<uint>> GetGenerator(this Random random)
{
    if (random is null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(random));

    return GeneratorFunc_Inner;

    IEnumerable<uint> GeneratorFunc_Inner(uint maxValue)
    {
        if (maxValue > int.MaxValue)
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(maxValue));

        return Generator_Inner();

        IEnumerable<uint> Generator_Inner()
        {
            var randomBytes = new byte[4];
            while (true)
            {
                random.NextBytes(randomBytes);
                yield return BitConverter.ToUInt32(randomBytes, 0) % maxValue;
            }
        }
    }
}

public static Func<uint, IEnumerable<uint>> GetGenerator(this System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider random)
{
    if (random is null)
        throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(random));

    return Generator_Inner;

    IEnumerable<uint> Generator_Inner(uint maxValue)
    {
        var randomBytes = new byte[4];
        while (true)
        {
            random.GetBytes(randomBytes);
            yield return BitConverter.ToUInt32(randomBytes, 0) % maxValue;
        }
    }
}

a simpler version using LINQ for only non-crypto strings:

private static readonly Random _random = new Random();

public static string RandomString(int length, string charset = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890") =>
    new string(_random.GenerateChars(charset).Take(length).ToArray()); 

public static IEnumerable<char> GenerateChars(this Random random, string charset)
{
    if (charset is null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(charset));
    if (charset.Length == 0) throw new ArgumentException($"{nameof(charset)} must contain at least 1 character", nameof(charset));

    return random.Generator(charset.Length).Select(r => charset[r]);
}

public static IEnumerable<int> Generator(this Random random, int maxValue)
{
    if (random is null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(random));

    return Generator_Inner();

    IEnumerable<int> Generator_Inner() { while (true) yield return random.Next(maxValue); }
}

UPDATED based on comments. The original implementation generated a-h ~1.95% of the time and the remaining characters ~1.56% of the time. The update generates all characters ~1.61% of the time.

FRAMEWORK SUPPORT - .NET Core 3 (and future platforms that support .NET Standard 2.1 or above) provides a cryptographically sound method RandomNumberGenerator.GetInt32() to generate a random integer within a desired range.

Unlike some of the alternatives presented, this one is cryptographically sound.

using System;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;

namespace UniqueKey
{
    public class KeyGenerator
    {
        internal static readonly char[] chars =
            "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890".ToCharArray(); 

        public static string GetUniqueKey(int size)
        {            
            byte[] data = new byte[4*size];
            using (RNGCryptoServiceProvider crypto = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                crypto.GetBytes(data);
            }
            StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(size);
            for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
            {
                var rnd = BitConverter.ToUInt32(data, i * 4);
                var idx = rnd % chars.Length;

                result.Append(chars[idx]);
            }

            return result.ToString();
        }

        public static string GetUniqueKeyOriginal_BIASED(int size)
        {
            char[] chars =
                "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890".ToCharArray();
            byte[] data = new byte[size];
            using (RNGCryptoServiceProvider crypto = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                crypto.GetBytes(data);
            }
            StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder(size);
            foreach (byte b in data)
            {
                result.Append(chars[b % (chars.Length)]);
            }
            return result.ToString();
        }
    }
}

Based on a discussion of alternatives here and updated/modified based on the comments below.

Here's a small test harness that demonstrates the distribution of characters in the old and updated output. For a deep discussion of the analysis of randomness, check out random.org.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using UniqueKey;

namespace CryptoRNGDemo
{
    class Program
    {

        const int REPETITIONS = 1000000;
        const int KEY_SIZE = 32;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Original BIASED implementation");
            PerformTest(REPETITIONS, KEY_SIZE, KeyGenerator.GetUniqueKeyOriginal_BIASED);

            Console.WriteLine("Updated implementation");
            PerformTest(REPETITIONS, KEY_SIZE, KeyGenerator.GetUniqueKey);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        static void PerformTest(int repetitions, int keySize, Func<int, string> generator)
        {
            Dictionary<char, int> counts = new Dictionary<char, int>();
            foreach (var ch in UniqueKey.KeyGenerator.chars) counts.Add(ch, 0);

            for (int i = 0; i < REPETITIONS; i++)
            {
                var key = generator(KEY_SIZE); 
                foreach (var ch in key) counts[ch]++;
            }

            int totalChars = counts.Values.Sum();
            foreach (var ch in UniqueKey.KeyGenerator.chars)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"{ch}: {(100.0 * counts[ch] / totalChars).ToString("#.000")}%");
            }
        }
    }
}

Question: Why should I waste my time using Enumerable.Range instead of typing in "ABCDEFGHJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"?

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

public class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var randomCharacters = GetRandomCharacters(8, true);
        Console.WriteLine(new string(randomCharacters.ToArray()));
    }

    private static List<char> getAvailableRandomCharacters(bool includeLowerCase)
    {
        var integers = Enumerable.Empty<int>();
        integers = integers.Concat(Enumerable.Range('A', 26));
        integers = integers.Concat(Enumerable.Range('0', 10));

        if ( includeLowerCase )
            integers = integers.Concat(Enumerable.Range('a', 26));

        return integers.Select(i => (char)i).ToList();
    }

    public static IEnumerable<char> GetRandomCharacters(int count, bool includeLowerCase)
    {
        var characters = getAvailableRandomCharacters(includeLowerCase);
        var random = new Random();
        var result = Enumerable.Range(0, count)
            .Select(_ => characters[random.Next(characters.Count)]);

        return result;
    }
}

Answer: Magic strings are BAD. Did ANYONE notice there was no "I" in my string at the top? My mother taught me not to use magic strings for this very reason...

n.b. 1: As many others like @dtb said, don't use System.Random if you need cryptographic security...

n.b. 2: This answer isn't the most efficient or shortest, but I wanted the space to separate the answer from the question. The purpose of my answer is more to warn against magic strings than to provide a fancy innovative answer.

After reviewing the other answers and considering CodeInChaos' comments, along with CodeInChaos still biased (although less) answer, I thought a final ultimate cut and paste solution was needed. So while updating my answer I decided to go all out.

For an up to date version of this code, please visit the new Hg repository on Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/merarischroeder/secureswiftrandom. I recommend you copy and paste the code from: https://bitbucket.org/merarischroeder/secureswiftrandom/src/6c14b874f34a3f6576b0213379ecdf0ffc7496ea/Code/Alivate.SolidSwiftRandom/SolidSwiftRandom.cs?at=default&fileviewer=file-view-default (make sure you click the Raw button to make it easier to copy and make sure you have the latest version, I think this link goes to a specific version of the code, not the latest).

Updated notes:

1. Relating to some other answers - If you know the length of the output, you don't need a StringBuilder, and when using ToCharArray, this creates and fills the array (you don't need to create an empty array first)
2. Relating to some other answers - You should use NextBytes, rather than getting one at a time for performance
3. Technically you could pin the byte array for faster access.. it's usually worth it when your iterating more than 6-8 times over a byte array. (Not done here)
4. Use of RNGCryptoServiceProvider for best randomness
5. Use of caching of a 1MB buffer of random data - benchmarking shows cached single bytes access speed is ~1000x faster - taking 9ms over 1MB vs 989ms for uncached.
6. Optimised rejection of bias zone within my new class.

End solution to question:

static char[] charSet =  "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789".ToCharArray();
static int byteSize = 256; //Labelling convenience
static int biasZone = byteSize - (byteSize % charSet.Length);
public string GenerateRandomString(int Length) //Configurable output string length
{
    byte[] rBytes = new byte[Length]; //Do as much before and after lock as possible
    char[] rName = new char[Length];
    SecureFastRandom.GetNextBytesMax(rBytes, biasZone);
    for (var i = 0; i < Length; i++)
    {
        rName[i] = charSet[rBytes[i] % charSet.Length];
    }
    return new string(rName);
}

But you need my new (untested) class:

/// <summary>
/// My benchmarking showed that for RNGCryptoServiceProvider:
/// 1. There is negligable benefit of sharing RNGCryptoServiceProvider object reference 
/// 2. Initial GetBytes takes 2ms, and an initial read of 1MB takes 3ms (starting to rise, but still negligable)
/// 2. Cached is ~1000x faster for single byte at a time - taking 9ms over 1MB vs 989ms for uncached
/// </summary>
class SecureFastRandom
{
    static byte[] byteCache = new byte[1000000]; //My benchmark showed that an initial read takes 2ms, and an initial read of this size takes 3ms (starting to raise)
    static int lastPosition = 0;
    static int remaining = 0;

    /// <summary>
    /// Static direct uncached access to the RNGCryptoServiceProvider GetBytes function
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="buffer"></param>
    public static void DirectGetBytes(byte[] buffer)
    {
        using (var r = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
        {
            r.GetBytes(buffer);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Main expected method to be called by user. Underlying random data is cached from RNGCryptoServiceProvider for best performance
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="buffer"></param>
    public static void GetBytes(byte[] buffer)
    {
        if (buffer.Length > byteCache.Length)
        {
            DirectGetBytes(buffer);
            return;
        }

        lock (byteCache)
        {
            if (buffer.Length > remaining)
            {
                DirectGetBytes(byteCache);
                lastPosition = 0;
                remaining = byteCache.Length;
            }

            Buffer.BlockCopy(byteCache, lastPosition, buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
            lastPosition += buffer.Length;
            remaining -= buffer.Length;
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Return a single byte from the cache of random data.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static byte GetByte()
    {
        lock (byteCache)
        {
            return UnsafeGetByte();
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Shared with public GetByte and GetBytesWithMax, and not locked to reduce lock/unlocking in loops. Must be called within lock of byteCache.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns></returns>
    static byte UnsafeGetByte()
    {
        if (1 > remaining)
        {
            DirectGetBytes(byteCache);
            lastPosition = 0;
            remaining = byteCache.Length;
        }

        lastPosition++;
        remaining--;
        return byteCache[lastPosition - 1];
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Rejects bytes which are equal to or greater than max. This is useful for ensuring there is no bias when you are modulating with a non power of 2 number.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="buffer"></param>
    /// <param name="max"></param>
    public static void GetBytesWithMax(byte[] buffer, byte max)
    {
        if (buffer.Length > byteCache.Length / 2) //No point caching for larger sizes
        {
            DirectGetBytes(buffer);

            lock (byteCache)
            {
                UnsafeCheckBytesMax(buffer, max);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            lock (byteCache)
            {
                if (buffer.Length > remaining) //Recache if not enough remaining, discarding remaining - too much work to join two blocks
                    DirectGetBytes(byteCache);

                Buffer.BlockCopy(byteCache, lastPosition, buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                lastPosition += buffer.Length;
                remaining -= buffer.Length;

                UnsafeCheckBytesMax(buffer, max);
            }
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Checks buffer for bytes equal and above max. Must be called within lock of byteCache.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="buffer"></param>
    /// <param name="max"></param>
    static void UnsafeCheckBytesMax(byte[] buffer, byte max)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < buffer.Length; i++)
        {
            while (buffer[i] >= max)
                buffer[i] = UnsafeGetByte(); //Replace all bytes which are equal or above max
        }
    }
}

For history - my older solution for this answer, used Random object:

    private static char[] charSet =
      "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789".ToCharArray();

    static rGen = new Random(); //Must share, because the clock seed only has Ticks (~10ms) resolution, yet lock has only 20-50ns delay.
    static int byteSize = 256; //Labelling convenience
    static int biasZone = byteSize - (byteSize % charSet.Length);
    static bool SlightlyMoreSecurityNeeded = true; //Configuration - needs to be true, if more security is desired and if charSet.Length is not divisible by 2^X.
    public string GenerateRandomString(int Length) //Configurable output string length
    {
      byte[] rBytes = new byte[Length]; //Do as much before and after lock as possible
      char[] rName = new char[Length];
      lock (rGen) //~20-50ns
      {
          rGen.NextBytes(rBytes);

          for (int i = 0; i < Length; i++)
          {
              while (SlightlyMoreSecurityNeeded && rBytes[i] >= biasZone) //Secure against 1/5 increased bias of index[0-7] values against others. Note: Must exclude where it == biasZone (that is >=), otherwise there's still a bias on index 0.
                  rBytes[i] = rGen.NextByte();
              rName[i] = charSet[rBytes[i] % charSet.Length];
          }
      }
      return new string(rName);
    }

Performance:

1. SecureFastRandom - First single run = ~9-33ms. Imperceptible. Ongoing: 5ms (sometimes it goes up to 13ms) over 10,000 iterations, With a single average iteration= 1.5 microseconds.. Note: Requires generally 2, but occasionally up to 8 cache refreshes - depends on how many single bytes exceed the bias zone
2. Random - First single run = ~0-1ms. Imperceptible. Ongoing: 5ms over 10,000 iterations. With a single average iteration= .5 microseconds.. About the same speed.

Also check out:

• https://bitbucket.org/merarischroeder/number-range-with-no-bias/src
• https://stackoverflow.com/a/45118325/887092

These links are another approach. Buffering could be added to this new code base, but most important was exploring different approaches to removing bias, and benchmarking the speeds and pros/cons.

Here's an example that I stole from Sam Allen example at Dot Net Perls

If you only need 8 characters, then use Path.GetRandomFileName() in the System.IO namespace. Sam says using the "Path.GetRandomFileName method here is sometimes superior, because it uses RNGCryptoServiceProvider for better randomness. However, it is limited to 11 random characters."

GetRandomFileName always returns a 12 character string with a period at the 9th character. So you'll need to strip the period (since that's not random) and then take 8 characters from the string. Actually, you could just take the first 8 characters and not worry about the period.

public string Get8CharacterRandomString()
{
    string path = Path.GetRandomFileName();
    path = path.Replace(".", ""); // Remove period.
    return path.Substring(0, 8);  // Return 8 character string
}

PS: thanks Sam

Solution 1 - largest 'range' with most flexible length

string get_unique_string(int string_length) {
    using(var rng = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider()) {
        var bit_count = (string_length * 6);
        var byte_count = ((bit_count + 7) / 8); // rounded up
        var bytes = new byte[byte_count];
        rng.GetBytes(bytes);
        return Convert.ToBase64String(bytes);
    }
}

This solution has more range than using a GUID because a GUID has a couple of fixed bits that are always the same and therefore not random, for example the 13 character in hex is always "4" - at least in a version 6 GUID.

This solution also lets you generate a string of any length.

Solution 2 - One line of code - good for up to 22 characters

Convert.ToBase64String(Guid.NewGuid().ToByteArray()).Substring(0, 8);

You can't generate strings as long as Solution 1 and the string doesn't have the same range due to fixed bits in GUID's, but in a lot of cases this will do the job.

Solution 3 - Slightly less code

Guid.NewGuid().ToString("n").Substring(0, 8);

Mostly keeping this here for historical purpose. It uses slightly less code, that though comes as the expense of having less range - because it uses hex instead of base64 it takes more characters to represent the same range compared the other solutions.

Which means more chance of collision - testing it with 100,000 iterations of 8 character strings generated one duplicate.

I was looking for a more specific answer, where I want to control the format of the random string and came across this post. For example: license plates (of cars) have a specific format (per country) and I wanted to created random license plates.
I decided to write my own extension method of Random for this. (this is in order to reuse the same Random object, as you could have doubles in multi-threading scenarios). I created a gist (https://gist.github.com/SamVanhoutte/808845ca78b9c041e928), but will also copy the extension class here:

void Main()
{
    Random rnd = new Random();
    rnd.GetString("1-###-000").Dump();
}

public static class RandomExtensions
{
    public static string GetString(this Random random, string format)
    {
        // Based on http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1344221/how-can-i-generate-random-alphanumeric-strings-in-c
        // Added logic to specify the format of the random string (# will be random string, 0 will be random numeric, other characters remain)
        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
        for(int formatIndex = 0; formatIndex < format.Length ; formatIndex++)
        {
            switch(format.ToUpper()[formatIndex])
            {
                case '0': result.Append(getRandomNumeric(random)); break;
                case '#': result.Append(getRandomCharacter(random)); break;
                default : result.Append(format[formatIndex]); break;
            }
        }
        return result.ToString();
    }

    private static char getRandomCharacter(Random random)
    {
        string chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
        return chars[random.Next(chars.Length)];
    }

    private static char getRandomNumeric(Random random)
    {
        string nums = "0123456789";
        return nums[random.Next(nums.Length)];
    }
}

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.)

not 100% sure, as I didn't test EVERY option here, but of the ones I did test, this one is the fastest. timed it with stopwatch and it showed 9-10 ticks so if speed is more important than security, try this:

 private static Random random = new Random(); 
 public static string Random(int length)
     {   
          var stringChars = new char[length];

          for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
              {
                  stringChars[i] = (char)random.Next(0x30, 0x7a);                  
                  return new string(stringChars);
              }
     }

One line of code Membership.GeneratePassword() does the trick :)

Here is a demo for the same.

A solution without using Random :

var chars = Enumerable.Repeat("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789", 8);

var randomStr = new string(chars.SelectMany(str => str)
                                .OrderBy(c => Guid.NewGuid())
                                .Take(8).ToArray());

I don't know how cryptographically sound this is, but it's more readable and concise than the more intricate solutions by far (imo), and it should be more "random" than System.Random-based solutions.

return alphabet
    .OrderBy(c => Guid.NewGuid())
    .Take(strLength)
    .Aggregate(
        new StringBuilder(),
        (builder, c) => builder.Append(c))
    .ToString();

I can't decide if I think this version or the next one is "prettier", but they give the exact same results:

return new string(alphabet
    .OrderBy(o => Guid.NewGuid())
    .Take(strLength)
    .ToArray());

Granted, it isn't optimized for speed, so if it's mission critical to generate millions of random strings every second, try another one!

NOTE: This solution doesn't allow for repetitions of symbols in the alphabet, and the alphabet MUST be of equal or greater size than the output string, making this approach less desirable in some circumstances, it all depends on your use-case.

 public static string RandomString(int length)
    {
        const string chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
        var random = new Random();
        return new string(Enumerable.Repeat(chars, length).Select(s => s[random.Next(s.Length)]).ToArray());
    }

Here is a mechanism to generate a random alpha-numeric string (I use this to generate passwords and test data) without defining the alphabet and numbers,

CleanupBase64 will remove necessary parts in the string and keep adding random alpha-numeric letters recursively.

        public static string GenerateRandomString(int length)
        {
            var numArray = new byte[length];
            new RNGCryptoServiceProvider().GetBytes(numArray);
            return CleanUpBase64String(Convert.ToBase64String(numArray), length);
        }

        private static string CleanUpBase64String(string input, int maxLength)
        {
            input = input.Replace("-", "");
            input = input.Replace("=", "");
            input = input.Replace("/", "");
            input = input.Replace("+", "");
            input = input.Replace(" ", "");
            while (input.Length < maxLength)
                input = input + GenerateRandomString(maxLength);
            return input.Length <= maxLength ?
                input.ToUpper() : //In my case I want capital letters
                input.ToUpper().Substring(0, maxLength);
        }

A slightly cleaner version of DTB's solution.

    var chars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
    var random = new Random();
    var list = Enumerable.Repeat(0, 8).Select(x=>chars[random.Next(chars.Length)]);
    return string.Join("", list);

Your style preferences may vary.

Now in one-liner flavour.

private string RandomName()
{
        return new string(
            Enumerable.Repeat("ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ", 13)
                .Select(s =>
                {
                    var cryptoResult = new byte[4];
                    using (var cryptoProvider = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
                        cryptoProvider.GetBytes(cryptoResult);

                    return s[new Random(BitConverter.ToInt32(cryptoResult, 0)).Next(s.Length)];
                })
                .ToArray());
}

There is one of the awasome nuget packages that make this so simple.

var myObject = new Faker<MyObject>()
.RuleFor(p => p.MyAlphaNumericProperty, f => f.Random.AlphaNumeric(/*lenght*/ 7))
.Generate();

One of the good example is here.

The simplest:

public static string GetRandomAlphaNumeric()
{
    return Path.GetRandomFileName().Replace(".", "").Substring(0, 8);
}

You can get better performance if you hard code the char array and rely on System.Random:

public static string GetRandomAlphaNumeric()
{
    var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
    return new string(chars.Select(c => chars[random.Next(chars.Length)]).Take(8).ToArray());
}

If ever you worry the English alphabets can change sometime around and you might lose business, then you can avoid hard coding, but should perform slightly worse (comparable to Path.GetRandomFileName approach)

public static string GetRandomAlphaNumeric()
{
    var chars = 'a'.To('z').Concat('0'.To('9')).ToList();
    return new string(chars.Select(c => chars[random.Next(chars.Length)]).Take(8).ToArray());
}

public static IEnumerable<char> To(this char start, char end)
{
    if (end < start)
        throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("the end char should not be less than start char", innerException: null);
    return Enumerable.Range(start, end - start + 1).Select(i => (char)i);
}

The last two approaches looks better if you can make them an extension method on System.Random instance.

Here is a variant of Eric J's solution, i.e. cryptographically sound, for WinRT (Windows Store App):

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length)
{
    var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890";
    var result = new StringBuilder(length);
    for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i)
    {
        result.Append(CryptographicBuffer.GenerateRandomNumber() % chars.Length);
    }
    return result.ToString();
}

If performance matters (especially when length is high):

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length)
{
    var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890";
    var result = new System.Text.StringBuilder(length);
    var bytes = CryptographicBuffer.GenerateRandom((uint)length * 4).ToArray();
    for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i += 4)
    {
        result.Append(BitConverter.ToUInt32(bytes, i) % chars.Length);
    }
    return result.ToString();
}

Another option could be to use Linq and aggregate random chars into a stringbuilder.

var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456789".ToArray();
string pw = Enumerable.Range(0, passwordLength)
                      .Aggregate(
                          new StringBuilder(),
                          (sb, n) => sb.Append((chars[random.Next(chars.Length)])),
                          sb => sb.ToString());

You just use the assembly SRVTextToImage. And write below code to generate random string.

CaptchaRandomImage c1 = new CaptchaRandomImage();
            string text = c1.GetRandomString(8);

Mostly it is used to implement the Captcha. But in your case it also works. Hope it helps.

Horrible, I know, but I just couldn't help myself:

namespace ConsoleApplication2
{
    using System;
    using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Random adomRng = new Random();
            string rndString = string.Empty;
            char c;

            for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
            {
                while (!Regex.IsMatch((c=Convert.ToChar(adomRng.Next(48,128))).ToString(), "[A-Za-z0-9]"));
                rndString += c;
            }

            Console.WriteLine(rndString + Environment.NewLine);
        }
    }
}

The code written by Eric J. is quite sloppy (it is quite clear that it is from 6 years ago... he probably wouldn't write that code today), and there are even some problems.

Unlike some of the alternatives presented, this one is cryptographically sound.

Untrue... There is a bias in the password (as written in a comment), bcdefgh are a little more probable than the others (the a isn't because by the GetNonZeroBytes it isn't generating bytes with a value of zero, so the bias for the a is balanced by it), so it isn't really cryptographically sound.

This should correct all the problems.

public static string GetUniqueKey(int size = 6, string chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890")
{
    using (var crypto = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
    {
        var data = new byte[size];

        // If chars.Length isn't a power of 2 then there is a bias if
        // we simply use the modulus operator. The first characters of
        // chars will be more probable than the last ones.

        // buffer used if we encounter an unusable random byte. We will
        // regenerate it in this buffer
        byte[] smallBuffer = null;

        // Maximum random number that can be used without introducing a
        // bias
        int maxRandom = byte.MaxValue - ((byte.MaxValue + 1) % chars.Length);

        crypto.GetBytes(data);

        var result = new char[size];

        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
        {
            byte v = data[i];

            while (v > maxRandom)
            {
                if (smallBuffer == null)
                {
                    smallBuffer = new byte[1];
                }

                crypto.GetBytes(smallBuffer);
                v = smallBuffer[0];
            }

            result[i] = chars[v % chars.Length];
        }

        return new string(result);
    }
}