PHP Randoms – Random Functions To Do Random Numbers, Random Strings, Random Files, & More

Random values are important to a lot of larger websites. Randoms can be used to generate strings for passwords, quotes, and CAPTCHAs. They can also be used for grabbing random numbers for games and other purposes. Here are a few random functions to do random things.

Random Integer

function get_random_number($min = 0, $max = 100) {
	return rand($min,$max);
}

Random String - From Preset Word List (Array)

function get_random_string_from_list($list_of_words) {
	return $list_of_words[rand(0, sizeof($list_of_words)-1)];
}

Random String

function get_random_string($length=6,$characters = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPRQSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-_") {
        $num_characters = strlen($characters) - 1;
        while (strlen($return) < $length) {
            $return.= $characters[mt_rand(0, $num_characters)];
        }
        return $return;
}

Random Float

function random_float ($min, $max) {
   return ($min + lcg_value() * (abs($max-$min)));
}

Source: PHP.net

Random Hex Color

function get_random_hex_color($values = 'abcdef0123456789',$length=6) {
        $num_characters = strlen($characters) - 1;
        while (strlen($code) < $length) {
            $return.= $characters[mt_rand(0, $num_characters)];
        }
        return '#'.$return;
}

Random File From Directory

function get_random_file($dir) {
        while (false !== ($file = readdir($dir))) {
                $files[] = $file;
        }
        return $files[rand(0, sizeof($files)-1)];
}