I was just looking into how to solve this same problem, but I also want my function to create a token that can be used for password retrieval as well. This means that I need to limit the ability of the token to be guessed. Because uniqid is based on the time, and according to php.net "the return value is little different from microtime()", uniqid does not meet the criteria. PHP recommends using openssl_random_pseudo_bytes() instead to generate cryptographically secure tokens.

A quick, short and to the point answer is:

bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($bytes))

which will generate a random string of alphanumeric characters of length = $bytes * 2. Unfortunately this only has an alphabet of [a-f][0-9], but it works.

function crypto_rand_secure($min, $max)
{
    $range = $max - $min;
    if ($range < 1) return $min; // not so random...
    $log = ceil(log($range, 2));
    $bytes = (int) ($log / 8) + 1; // length in bytes
    $bits = (int) $log + 1; // length in bits
    $filter = (int) (1 << $bits) - 1; // set all lower bits to 1
    do {
        $rnd = hexdec(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($bytes)));
        $rnd = $rnd & $filter; // discard irrelevant bits
    } while ($rnd > $range);
    return $min + $rnd;
}

function getToken($length)
{
    $token = "";
    $codeAlphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
    $codeAlphabet.= "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
    $codeAlphabet.= "0123456789";
    $max = strlen($codeAlphabet); // edited

    for ($i=0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $token .= $codeAlphabet[crypto_rand_secure(0, $max-1)];
    }

    return $token;
}

crypto_rand_secure($min, $max) works as a drop in replacement for rand() or mt_rand. It uses openssl_random_pseudo_bytes to help create a random number between $min and $max.

getToken($length) creates an alphabet to use within the token and then creates a string of length $length.

EDIT: I neglected to cite source - http://us1.php.net/manual/en/function.openssl-random-pseudo-bytes.php#104322

EDIT (PHP7): With the release of PHP7, the standard library now has two new functions that can replace/improve/simplify the crypto_rand_secure function above. random_bytes($length) and random_int($min, $max)

http://php.net/manual/en/function.random-bytes.php

http://php.net/manual/en/function.random-int.php

Object-oriented version of the most up-voted solution

I've created an object-oriented solution based on Scott's answer:

<?php

namespace Utils;

/**
 * Class RandomStringGenerator
 * @package Utils
 *
 * Solution taken from here:
 * http://stackoverflow.com/a/13733588/1056679
 */
class RandomStringGenerator
{
    /** @var string */
    protected $alphabet;

    /** @var int */
    protected $alphabetLength;


    /**
     * @param string $alphabet
     */
    public function __construct($alphabet = '')
    {
        if ('' !== $alphabet) {
            $this->setAlphabet($alphabet);
        } else {
            $this->setAlphabet(
                  implode(range('a', 'z'))
                . implode(range('A', 'Z'))
                . implode(range(0, 9))
            );
        }
    }

    /**
     * @param string $alphabet
     */
    public function setAlphabet($alphabet)
    {
        $this->alphabet = $alphabet;
        $this->alphabetLength = strlen($alphabet);
    }

    /**
     * @param int $length
     * @return string
     */
    public function generate($length)
    {
        $token = '';

        for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
            $randomKey = $this->getRandomInteger(0, $this->alphabetLength);
            $token .= $this->alphabet[$randomKey];
        }

        return $token;
    }

    /**
     * @param int $min
     * @param int $max
     * @return int
     */
    protected function getRandomInteger($min, $max)
    {
        $range = ($max - $min);

        if ($range < 0) {
            // Not so random...
            return $min;
        }

        $log = log($range, 2);

        // Length in bytes.
        $bytes = (int) ($log / 8) + 1;

        // Length in bits.
        $bits = (int) $log + 1;

        // Set all lower bits to 1.
        $filter = (int) (1 << $bits) - 1;

        do {
            $rnd = hexdec(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($bytes)));

            // Discard irrelevant bits.
            $rnd = $rnd & $filter;

        } while ($rnd >= $range);

        return ($min + $rnd);
    }
}

Usage

<?php

use Utils\RandomStringGenerator;

// Create new instance of generator class.
$generator = new RandomStringGenerator;

// Set token length.
$tokenLength = 32;

// Call method to generate random string.
$token = $generator->generate($tokenLength);

Custom alphabet

You can use custom alphabet if required. Just pass a string with supported chars to the constructor or setter:

<?php

$customAlphabet = '0123456789ABCDEF';

// Set initial alphabet.
$generator = new RandomStringGenerator($customAlphabet);

// Change alphabet whenever needed.
$generator->setAlphabet($customAlphabet);

Here's the output samples

SRniGU2sRQb2K1ylXKnWwZr4HrtdRgrM
q1sRUjNq1K9rG905aneFzyD5IcqD4dlC
I0euIWffrURLKCCJZ5PQFcNUCto6cQfD
AKwPJMEM5ytgJyJyGqoD5FQwxv82YvMr
duoRF6gAawNOEQRICnOUNYmStWmOpEgS
sdHUkEn4565AJoTtkc8EqJ6cC4MLEHUx
eVywMdYXczuZmHaJ50nIVQjOidEVkVna
baJGt7cdLDbIxMctLsEBWgAw5BByP5V0
iqT0B2obq3oerbeXkDVLjZrrLheW4d8f
OUQYCny6tj2TYDlTuu1KsnUyaLkeObwa

I hope it will help someone. Cheers!

This function will generate a random key using numbers and letters:

function random_string($length) {
    $key = '';
    $keys = array_merge(range(0, 9), range('a', 'z'));

    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $key .= $keys[array_rand($keys)];
    }

    return $key;
}

echo random_string(50);

Example output:

zsd16xzv3jsytnp87tk7ygv73k8zmr0ekh6ly7mxaeyeh46oe8

I use this one-liner:

base64_encode(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(3 * ($length >> 2)));

where length is the length of the desired string (divisible by 4, otherwise it gets rounded down to the nearest number divisible by 4)

1. Generate a random number using your favourite random-number generator
2. Multiply and divide it to get a number matching the number of characters in your code alphabet
3. Get the item at that index in your code alphabet.
4. Repeat from 1) until you have the length you want

e.g (in pseudo code)

int myInt = random(0, numcharacters)
char[] codealphabet = 'ABCDEF12345'
char random = codealphabet[i]
repeat until long enough

Here is ultimate unique id generator for you. made by me.

<?php
$d=date ("d");
$m=date ("m");
$y=date ("Y");
$t=time();
$dmt=$d+$m+$y+$t;    
$ran= rand(0,10000000);
$dmtran= $dmt+$ran;
$un=  uniqid();
$dmtun = $dmt.$un;
$mdun = md5($dmtran.$un);
$sort=substr($mdun, 16); // if you want sort length code.

echo $mdun;
?>

you can echo any 'var' for your id as you like. but $mdun is better, you can replace md5 to sha1 for better code but that will be very long which may you dont need.

Thank you.

You can use UUID(Universally Unique Identifier), it can be used for any purpose, from user authentication string to payment transaction id.

A UUID is a 16-octet (128-bit) number. In its canonical form, a UUID is represented by 32 hexadecimal digits, displayed in five groups separated by hyphens, in the form 8-4-4-4-12 for a total of 36 characters (32 alphanumeric characters and four hyphens).

function generate_uuid() {
    return sprintf( '%04x%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x-%04x%04x%04x',
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
        mt_rand( 0, 0xffff ),
        mt_rand( 0, 0x0C2f ) | 0x4000,
        mt_rand( 0, 0x3fff ) | 0x8000,
        mt_rand( 0, 0x2Aff ), mt_rand( 0, 0xffD3 ), mt_rand( 0, 0xff4B )
    );

}

//calling funtion

$transationID = generate_uuid();

some example outputs will be like:

E302D66D-87E3-4450-8CB6-17531895BF14
22D288BC-7289-442B-BEEA-286777D559F2
51B4DE29-3B71-4FD2-9E6C-071703E1FF31
3777C8C6-9FF5-4C78-AAA2-08A47F555E81
54B91C72-2CF4-4501-A6E9-02A60DCBAE4C
60F75C7C-1AE3-417B-82C8-14D456542CD7
8DE0168D-01D3-4502-9E59-10D665CEBCB2

hope it helps someone in future :)

function random_string($length = 8) {
    $alphabets = range('A','Z');
    $numbers = range('0','9');
    $additional_characters = array('_','=');
    $final_array = array_merge($alphabets,$numbers,$additional_characters);
       while($length--) {
      $key = array_rand($final_array);

      $password .= $final_array[$key];
                        }
  if (preg_match('/[A-Za-z]/', $password) && preg_match('/[0-9]/', $password))
    {
     return $password;
    }else{
    return  random_string();
    }

 }

Scott, yes you are very write and good solution! Thanks.

I am also required to generate unique API token for my each user. Following is my approach, i used user information (Userid and Username):

public function generateUniqueToken($userid, $username){

        $rand = mt_rand(100,999);
    $md5 = md5($userid.'!(&^ 532567_465 ///'.$username);

    $md53 = substr($md5,0,3);
    $md5_remaining = substr($md5,3);

    $md5 = $md53. $rand. $userid. $md5_remaining;

    return $md5;
}

Please have a look and let me know if any improvement i can do. Thanks

after reading previous examples I came up with this:

protected static $nonce_length = 32;

public static function getNonce()
{
    $chars = array();
    for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++)
        $chars = array_merge($chars, range(0, 9), range('A', 'Z'));
    shuffle($chars);
    $start = mt_rand(0, count($chars) - self::$nonce_length);
    return substr(join('', $chars), $start, self::$nonce_length);
}

I duplicate 10 times the array[0-9,A-Z] and shuffle the elements, after I get a random start point for substr() to be more 'creative' :) you can add [a-z] and other elements to array, duplicate more or less, be more creative than me

function random($length)
{
    $bytes = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($length * 2);
    return substr(str_replace(array('/', '+', '='), '', base64_encode($bytes)), 0, $length);
}

I like to use hash keys when dealing verification links. I would recommend using the microtime and hashing that using MD5 since there should be no reason why the keys should be the same since it hashes based off of the microtime.

1. $key = md5(rand());
2. $key = md5(microtime());

You can use this code, I hope it will be helpful for you.

function rand_code($len)
{
 $min_lenght= 0;
 $max_lenght = 100;
 $bigL = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
 $smallL = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
 $number = "0123456789";
 $bigB = str_shuffle($bigL);
 $smallS = str_shuffle($smallL);
 $numberS = str_shuffle($number);
 $subA = substr($bigB,0,5);
 $subB = substr($bigB,6,5);
 $subC = substr($bigB,10,5);
 $subD = substr($smallS,0,5);
 $subE = substr($smallS,6,5);
 $subF = substr($smallS,10,5);
 $subG = substr($numberS,0,5);
 $subH = substr($numberS,6,5);
 $subI = substr($numberS,10,5);
 $RandCode1 = str_shuffle($subA.$subD.$subB.$subF.$subC.$subE);
 $RandCode2 = str_shuffle($RandCode1);
 $RandCode = $RandCode1.$RandCode2;
 if ($len>$min_lenght && $len<$max_lenght)
 {
 $CodeEX = substr($RandCode,0,$len);
 }
 else
 {
 $CodeEX = $RandCode;
 }
 return $CodeEX;
}

Details about Random code generator in PHP

Simplifying Scotts code above by removing unnecessary loops which is slowing down badly and does not make it any more secure than calling openssl_random_pseudo_bytes just once

function crypto_rand_secure($min, $max)
{
 $range = $max - $min;
 if ($range < 1) return $min; // not so random...
 $log = ceil(log($range, 2));
 $bytes = (int) ($log / 8) + 1; // length in bytes
 $rnd = hexdec(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($bytes)));
 return $min + $rnd%$range;
}

function getToken($length)
{
 return bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes($length)
}

I use

sha1(time() . $user->id)

result example:

f9a017798630e2e7f9b937559baa95d7e448a098

I believe the problem with all the existing ideas is that they are probably unique, but not definitely unique (as pointed out in Dariusz Walczak's reply to loletech). I have a solution that actually is unique. It requires that your script have some sort of memory. For me this is a SQL database. You could also simply write to a file somewhere. There are two implementations:

First method: have TWO fields rather than 1 that provide uniqueness. The first field is an ID number that is not random but is unique (The first ID is 1, the second 2...). If you are using SQL, just define the ID field with the AUTO_INCREMENT property. The second field is not unique but is random. This can be generated with any of the other techniques people have already mentioned. Scott's idea was good, but md5 is convenient and probably good enough for most purposes:

$random_token = md5($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] . time());

Second method: Basically the same idea, but initially pick a maximum number of strings that will ever be generated. This could just be a really big number like a trillion. Then do the same thing, generate an ID, but zero pad it so that all IDs are the same number of digits. Then just concatenate the ID with the random string. It will be random enough for most purposes, but the ID section will ensure that it is also unique.

Here is what I use:

md5(time() . rand());    
// Creates something like 0c947c3b1047334f5bb8a3b7adc1d97b

Here is what I'm using on one of my projects, it's working great and it generates a UNIQUE RANDOM TOKEN:

$timestampz=time();

function generateRandomString($length = 60) {
    $characters = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
    $charactersLength = strlen($characters);
    $randomString = '';
    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $randomString .= $characters[rand(0, $charactersLength - 1)];
    }
    return $randomString;
}


$tokenparta = generateRandomString();


$token = $timestampz*3 . $tokenparta;

echo $token;

Please note that I multiplied the timestamp by three to create a confusion for whoever user might be wondering how this token is generated ;)

I hope it helps :)