Generate a random string that can be used as a password.
One of the possible solutions looks like this:
say ('0' .. 'z').pick(15).join('');
The pickmethod with no arguments takes a random element from the range of the ASCII charactersbetween 0and z. In the above example, calling pick(15) selects 15 different characters, which are then joined together using the join method.
It is important to know the two key features of the pick method. First, when called with an integer argument bigger than 1, the result contains only unique elements. Thus, all the characters in the password are different.
The second feature is a consequence of the first one. If the provided list of elements is not long enough, and its length is less than the argument of pick, the result is as long as the original data list.
To see which elements are used for generating a password, run the code with a number bigger than the whole ASCII sequence:
say ('0' .. 'z').pick(1000).sort.join('');
With this request, you will see all the characters that participate in forming a random password:
0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
An example of a generated password: 05<EV]^bdfhnpyz.
To limit the character range, list the characters you want to see in a password:
my @chars = '0' ... '9', 'A' ... 'Z', 'a' ... 'z';
say @chars.pick(15).join('');
Now the password only contains alphanumeric symbols: 2zOIySp5PHb08Ql.
The ... operator creates a sequence. Be warned not to use the .. operator, which creates a range, in which case the @chars array is an array of ranges rather than a flat array of single characters.
The solution is quite elegant and does not require explicit use of the randfunction. Neither loops are needed.
Now, let us solve the task in such a way that characters may be repeated in the result. It is still possible to use the pickmethod but it should be called independently a few times.
my $password = '';
$password ~= ('0' .. 'z').pick() for 1..15;
say $password;
Now, the password can include the same character more than once, for example: jn@09Icoys@tD;o.
Finally, let us stick to the intermediate solution, where the password is formed via a few groups of random strings, and each such substring contains only unique characters:
my $password = '';
$password ~= ('0' .. 'z').pick(5).join('') for 1..3;
say $password;
As the pick returns a sequence, the join method is needed to concatenate characters to a string with no gaps.