making random string

[mivec]

to all,
is there an in built function in php that cna generate a random string? example:

rand() are for generating numbers right?

so what is the function for generating a string?what i mean of string is like probably---> fsr45mdk43 or something like that.

pls help..thanking u in advance.

[missing-score]

I used to have quite a nice way of making a random string but I have forgotten it. I think it used rand though.

This is how invisionboard generate a random password

    function make_password()
    {
        $pass = "";
        $chars = array(
            "1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","0",
            "a","A","b","B","c","C","d","D","e","E","f","F","g","G","h","H","i","I","j","J",
            "k","K","l","L","m","M","n","N","o","O","p","P","q","Q","r","R","s","S","t","T",
            "u","U","v","V","w","W","x","X","y","Y","z","Z");
    
        $count = count($chars) - 1;
    
        srand((double)microtime()*1000000);

        for($i = 0; $i < 8; $i++)
        {
            $pass .= $chars[rand(0, $count)];
        }
    
        return($pass);
    } 

you could obviously change the length and function name. Also, i think the (double) method is no longer used so, you could replace:

srand((double)microtime()*1000000)

with:

$microtime = microtime()*1000000;
settype($microtime, 'float');
srand($microtime); 

[eak]

this link may help you. ( http://www.phpnoise.com/tutorials/1/2 )
on this site is uses $string = md5(rand(0,9999));
I have tried it out and it works. you just have to use substr($string,start#,end#); to get the desired string length.