Generate random string in MySQL

Have you ever wanted to generate a random string in MySQL, say for assigning a random password to a list of users? Well here is a useful tip!

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SELECT SUBSTRING(MD5(RAND()) FROM 1 FOR 6) AS password

This creates a 6 character (easy to change, as you can see) string where the characters are from the MD5 command (and therefore in the range a-z and 0-9).

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