Random Strings

For secrets and other useful things

Do Not Do This: This Stack Overflow question is the current top Google result for "random string Python". The current top answer is "wrong."

''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(N))

This is an excellent method, but the PRNG in random is not cryptographically secure. I assume many people researching this question will want to generate random strings for encryption or passwords. You can do this securely by making a small change in the above code:

''.join(random.SystemRandom().choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(N))

Using random.SystemRandom() instead of just random uses /dev/urandom on *nix machines and CryptGenRandom() in Windows. These are cryptographically secure PRNGs. Using random.choice instead of random.SystemRandom().choice in an application that requires a secure PRNG could be potentially devastating, and given the popularity of this question, I bet that mistake has been made many times already.

If you're using python3.6 or above, you can use the new secrets module as mentioned in MSeifert's answer:

''.join(secrets.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(N))

The module docs also discuss convenient ways to generate secure tokens and best practices.