How to generate a random string in JavaScript

published: 06 Sep 2022

2 min read

There are many ways available to generate a random string in JavaScript. The quickest way is to use the Math.random() method.

The Math.random() method returns a random number between 0 (inclusive), and 1 (exclusive). You can convert this random number to a string and then remove the trailing zeros:

const rand = Math.random().toString().substr(2, 8);  // 60502138

The above code will generate a random string of 8 characters that will contain numbers only.

To generate an alpha-numeric string, you can pass an integer value between 2 and 36 to the toString() method called radix. It defines the base to use for representing a numeric value.

For a binary string (0-1), you can pass 2 as radix to toString():

const binary = Math.random().toString(2).substr(2, 8);  // 01100110

To generate a fully random string, you should pass 16 or greater as a radix value to toString():

const rand = Math.random().toString(16).substr(2, 8); // 6de5ccda

Let us write a function by using the above code to generate a random string anywhere between 0 and 14 characters:

const random = (length = 8) => {
    return Math.random().toString(16).substr(2, length);
};

console.log(random()); // bb325d9f
console.log(random(6)); // e51d83
console.log(random(10)); // e84c416cc7
console.log(random(14)); // ee16dfc68e361

Generate large random strings

To generate large random strings (14+ characters long), you have to write your own generator. The following example demonstrates how you can generate strings of any size by picking characters randomly from A-Z, a-z, and 0-9:

const random = (length = 8) => {
    // Declare all characters
    let chars = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';

    // Pick characers randomly
    let str = '';
    for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        str += chars.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * chars.length));
    }

    return str;

};

console.log(random()); // JgKGQEUx
console.log(random(12)); // ttwbeshkYzaX
console.log(random(20)); // zZN7uH9pPjhJf30QNus5

In the above example, Math.random() and Math.floor() methods are used to generate a random index of the character in the specified characters (A-Z a-z 0-9).

The for loop is used to loop through the number passed into the random() function. During each iteration of the loop, a random character is selected from the characters' list.

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How to generate a random string in JavaScript

There are many ways available to generate a random string in JavaScript. The quickest way is to use the Math.random() method.

The Math.random() method returns a random number between 0 (inclusive), and 1 (exclusive). You can convert this random number to a string and then remove the trailing zeros:

const rand = Math.random().toString().substr(2, 8);  // 60502138

The above code will generate a random string of 8 characters that will contain numbers only.

To generate an alpha-numeric string, you can pass an integer value between 2 and 36 to the toString() method called radix. It defines the base to use for representing a numeric value.

For a binary string (0-1), you can pass 2 as radix to toString():

const binary = Math.random().toString(2).substr(2, 8);  // 01100110

To generate a fully random string, you should pass 16 or greater as a radix value to toString():

const rand = Math.random().toString(16).substr(2, 8); // 6de5ccda

Let us write a function by using the above code to generate a random string anywhere between 0 and 14 characters:

const random = (length = 8) => {
    return Math.random().toString(16).substr(2, length);
};

console.log(random()); // bb325d9f
console.log(random(6)); // e51d83
console.log(random(10)); // e84c416cc7
console.log(random(14)); // ee16dfc68e361

Generate large random strings

const random = (length = 8) => {
    // Declare all characters
    let chars = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';

    // Pick characers randomly
    let str = '';
    for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        str += chars.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * chars.length));
    }

    return str;

};

console.log(random()); // JgKGQEUx
console.log(random(12)); // ttwbeshkYzaX
console.log(random(20)); // zZN7uH9pPjhJf30QNus5

In the above example, Math.random() and Math.floor() methods are used to generate a random index of the character in the specified characters (A-Z a-z 0-9).

The for loop is used to loop through the number passed into the random() function. During each iteration of the loop, a random character is selected from the characters' list.