How can I generate random alphanumeric strings?

Question

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

Answer 1

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