Question

I have the following code to generate a random password string:

<?php
$password = '';

for($i=0; $i<10; $i++) {
$chars = array('lower' => array('a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j','k','l','m','n','o','p','q','r','s','t','u','v','w','x','y','z'), 'upper' => array('A','B','C','D','E','F','G','H','I','J','K','L','M','N','O','P','Q','R','S','T','U','V','W','X','Y','Z'), 'num' => array('1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','0'), 'sym' => array('!','£','$','%','^','&','*','(',')','-','=','+','{','}','[',']',':','@','~',';','#','<','>','?',',','.','/'));
$set = rand(1, 4); 

switch($set) {
    case 1:
        $set = 'lower';
    break;
    case 2:
        $set = 'upper';
    break;
    case 3:
        $set = 'num';
    break;
    case 4:
        $set = 'sym';
    break;
}
$count = count($chars[$set]);
$digit = rand(0, ($count-1));
$output = $chars[$set][$digit];
$password.= $output;
}
echo $password;
?>

However every now and then one of the characters it outputs will be a capital a with a ^ above it. French or something. How is this possible? it can only pick whats it my arrays!

Answer 1

The only non-ascii character is the pound character, so my guess is that it has to do with this.

First off, it’s probably a good idea to avoid that one, as not many people will be able to easily type it.

Good chance that the encoding of your php file (or the encoding set by your editor) is not the same as your output encoding.