Generate random alphanumeric string in Swift

Question

How can I generate a random alphanumeric string in Swift?

Answer 1

If your random string should be secure-random, use this:

import Foundation
import Security

// ...

private static func createAlphaNumericRandomString(length: Int) -> String? {
    // create random numbers from 0 to 63
    // use random numbers as index for accessing characters from the symbols string
    // this limit is chosen because it is close to the number of possible symbols A-Z, a-z, 0-9
    // so the error rate for invalid indices is low
    let randomNumberModulo: UInt8 = 64

    // indices greater than the length of the symbols string are invalid
    // invalid indices are skipped
    let symbols = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"

    var alphaNumericRandomString = ""

    let maximumIndex = symbols.count - 1

    while alphaNumericRandomString.count != length {
        let bytesCount = 1
        var randomByte: UInt8 = 0

        guard errSecSuccess == SecRandomCopyBytes(kSecRandomDefault, bytesCount, &randomByte) else {
            return nil
        }

        let randomIndex = randomByte % randomNumberModulo

        // check if index exceeds symbols string length, then skip
        guard randomIndex <= maximumIndex else { continue }

        let symbolIndex = symbols.index(symbols.startIndex, offsetBy: Int(randomIndex))
        alphaNumericRandomString.append(symbols[symbolIndex])
    }

    return alphaNumericRandomString
}