Question

I want to generate unique random, N-valued key.
This key can contain numbers and latin characters, i.e. A-Za-z0-9.

The only solution I am thinking about is something like this (pseudocode):

key = "";
smb = "ABC…abc…0123456789"; // allowed symbols
for (i = 0; i < N; i++) {
    key += smb[rnd(0, smb.length() - 1)]; // select symbol at random position
}

Is there any better solution? What can you suggest?

Answer 1

I would look into GUIDs. From the Wikipedia entry, “the primary purpose of the GUID is to have a totally unique number,” which sounds exactly like what you are looking for. There are several implementations out there that generate GUIDs, so it’s likely you will not have to reinvent the wheel.