Thread: Random 4 Char Generator Generates 3 Numbers Instead?

Hi there everyone,

As you will be able to gather from this code, I am a total beginner. I'm trying to make the basis of a complex (pseudo)random password generator, but instead of 4 chars it is printing a 3 digit number.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

public class PasswordGen {
 
	public static void main (String[] args) {
 
		char[] alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".toCharArray();
		int w = (int) ((Math.random() * 25 +1)); // pick a letter of the alphabet
		int x = (int) ((Math.random() * 25 +1));
		int y = (int) ((Math.random() * 25 +1));
		int z = (int) ((Math.random() * 25 +1));
 
		char place1 = (alphabet[w]); // assign letter of the alphabet to place in string below
		char place2 = (alphabet[x]);
		char place3 = (alphabet[y]);
		char place4 = (alphabet[z]);
 
		System.out.println(place1 + place2 + place3 + place4);
	}
 
}

Welcome to the Forum! Thanks for taking the time to learn to post code correctly, and if you haven't already, please read this topic to see other useful info for newcomers.

Okay, so changing the string from 'place1 + place2 + place3 + place4' to 'place1', etc, gave me: wnxwknxwknxwknxwknxwknxwknxwknxwnxwknx
At 'place1 + place2 + place3 + place4' it gives me a number around 433 every time.

EDIT: Sorry, the long string came from a for loop I forgot to remove. Actual output was a single char.

I thought I just replied to this, but my post disappeared. Thanks for your concise reply - I have another question; when I put the random number generator in a for loop, it returns the same result over and over again (433, 433, 433) instead of a new calculation every time (433, 564, 794, etc). Is there a way to force it to generate again each time it loops?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by BenjaminJ

I thought I just replied to this, but my post disappeared. Thanks for your concise reply - I have another question; when I put the random number generator in a for loop, it returns the same result over and over again (433, 433, 433) instead of a new calculation every time (433, 564, 794, etc). Is there a way to force it to generate again each time it loops?

Thanks!

Show your code and we can help you.

I just realised the answer myself - the only part looping was the print method, not the random number generator. Everything's solved, thanks guys.