This function generates a random password, of whatever length you specify - the default is 8 characters. It will only use a character once per password, and it doesn't use vowels (to limit potentially offensive passwords) or lower-case L (to avoid confusion with the number one).
function generatePassword ($length = 8)
{
// start with a blank password
$password = "";
// define possible characters
$possible = "0123456789bcdfghjkmnpqrstvwxyz";
// set up a counter
$i = 0;
// add random characters to $password until $length is reached
while ($i < $length) {
// pick a random character from the possible ones
$char = substr($possible, mt_rand(0, strlen($possible)-1), 1);
// we don't want this character if it's already in the password
if (!strstr($password, $char)) {
$password .= $char;
$i++;
}
}
// done!
return $password;
}
