How can I generate random alphanumeric strings?

Question

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

Answer 1

Here is a variant of Eric J's solution, i.e. cryptographically sound, for WinRT (Windows Store App):

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length)
{
    var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890";
    var result = new StringBuilder(length);
    for (int i = 0; i < length; ++i)
    {
        result.Append(CryptographicBuffer.GenerateRandomNumber() % chars.Length);
    }
    return result.ToString();
}

If performance matters (especially when length is high):

public static string GenerateRandomString(int length)
{
    var chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890";
    var result = new System.Text.StringBuilder(length);
    var bytes = CryptographicBuffer.GenerateRandom((uint)length * 4).ToArray();
    for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i += 4)
    {
        result.Append(BitConverter.ToUInt32(bytes, i) % chars.Length);
    }
    return result.ToString();
}