Re: Generating random alphanumeric codes

On 26 Jun 2012, at 15:53, Sithembewena Lloyd Dube wrote:

Would anyone have tips on how to generate random 4-digit alphanumeric codes in python? Also, how does one calculate the number of possible combinations?

For upper case, lower case and digits we have,

26 + 26 + 10 = 62 

...possibilities for each position.  If you have four positions you have,

62 * 62 * 62 * 62 = 14776336

... possible combinations.

You can create a random number in this range by,

import Random from random

def build_population(spans):

for span in spans:

for x in range(ord(span[0]), ord(span[1]) + 1):

yield chr(x)

population = list(build_population( (('A','Z'), ('a', 'z'), ('0', '9')) ))

r = Random()

r.sample(population, 4)

['C', 'l', 'q', 'y']

You may need to look into getting some entropy into the random number generator...

Cheers

aid