PHP/MySQL - Best way to create unique random string?

Question

How do I create a random unique string in MySQL?

when I need to create a random string in PHP I use this function:

public function generateString($le         


        

Answer 1

Unique random strings can be used as character keys or tokens to identify database records and check to database table and provides Unique key with store $refer_by variable.

define('DB_SERVER', "localhost");
define('DB_USER', "root");
define('DB_PASS', "");
define('DB_DATABASE', "student");
$con = mysqli_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USER, DB_PASS, DB_DATABASE);

function refercode()
{
    $string = '';
    $characters = '0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
    $max = strlen($characters) - 1;
    for ($i = 0; $i < 6; $i++) {
        $string .= $characters[mt_rand(0, $max)];
    }
    $refer = "select * from user_detail where refer_code = '".$string."' ";
    $coderefertest = mysqli_query($con,$refer);

    if(mysqli_num_rows($coderefertest)>0)
    {
        return refercode();
    }
    else
    {
        return $string;
    }
}
$refer_by = refercode();

Answer 2

DELIMITER $$

USE `temp` $$

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS `GenerateUniqueValue`$$

CREATE PROCEDURE `GenerateUniqueValue`(IN tableName VARCHAR(255),IN columnName VARCHAR(255)) 
BEGIN
    DECLARE uniqueValue VARCHAR(8) DEFAULT "";
    WHILE LENGTH(uniqueValue) = 0 DO
        SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1),
                SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1),
                SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1),
                SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1),
                SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1),
                SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1),
                SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1),
                SUBSTRING('ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123456789', RAND()*34+1, 1)
                ) INTO @newUniqueValue;
        SET @rcount = -1;
        SET @query=CONCAT('SELECT COUNT(*) INTO @rcount FROM  ',tableName,' WHERE ',columnName,'  like ''',@newUniqueValue,'''');
        PREPARE stmt FROM  @query;
        EXECUTE stmt;
        DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;
    IF @rcount = 0 THEN
            SET uniqueValue = @newUniqueValue ;
        END IF ;
    END WHILE ;
    SELECT uniqueValue;
    END$$

DELIMITER ;

Use this stored procedure and call this stored procedure as

Call GenerateUniqueValue('tableName','columnName')

Answer 3

I usually use:

SELECT LEFT(MD5(id), 8)

variants by needings:

SELECT LEFT(UUID(), 8)

SELECT LEFT(MD5(RAND()), 8)

Answer 4

Assuming 10 characters from the character set a-z, A-Z, 0-9 mean there are (26 + 26 + 10)¹⁰ = 8.39299366 × 10¹⁷ possible combinations. To calculate the odds of a collision... just 1/x the afore-mentioned number. So I would not be worrying about getting the same string twice. Even if do get the same string again I'll just run the function again in a loop, the only exit condition being that a unique string is found.