How to generate a random string of 20 characters

public String randomString(String chars, int length) {
  Random rand = new Random();
  StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder();
  for (int i=0; i<length; i++) {
    buf.append(chars.charAt(rand.nextInt(chars.length())));
  }
  return buf.toString();
}

You may use the class java.util.Random with method

char c = (char)(rnd.nextInt(128-32))+32 

20x to get Bytes, which you interpret as ASCII. If you're fine with ASCII.

32 is the offset, from where the characters are printable in general.

I'd use this approach:

String randomString(final int length) {
    Random r = new Random(); // perhaps make it a class variable so you don't make a new one every time
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        char c = (char)(r.nextInt((int)(Character.MAX_VALUE)));
        sb.append(c);
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

If you want a byte[] you can do this:

byte[] randomByteString(final int length) {
    Random r = new Random();
    byte[] result = new byte[length];
    for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        result[i] = r.nextByte();
    }
    return result;
}

Or you could do this

byte[] randomByteString(final int length) {
    Random r = new Random();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for(int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        char c = (char)(r.nextInt((int)(Character.MAX_VALUE)));
        sb.append(c);
    }
    return sb.toString().getBytes();
}

Here you go. Just specify the chars you want to allow on the first line.

char[] chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz".toCharArray();
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(20);
Random random = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
    char c = chars[random.nextInt(chars.length)];
    sb.append(c);
}
String output = sb.toString();
System.out.println(output);

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If you are using this to generate something sensitive like a password reset URL or session ID cookie or temporary password reset, be sure to use java.security.SecureRandom instead. Values produced by java.util.Random and java.util.concurrent.ThreadLocalRandom are mathematically predictable.