From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2008-06-29T19:32:25+09:00
Subject: Combinations of Letters and Numbers (was: Re: Random Generation of Characters)

On 29.06.2008 06:47, Tj Superfly wrote:
> How could you generate a list of all possible combination's of lowercase
> letters (a-z) and numbers (0-9).

Just a note: this is by no means random.  It seems you rather want all 
*combinations* of letters and numbers.

Another remark: if you do not limit the length the number of such 
combinations is unlimited as well.

> I would want the list to be in an array which I could then export to a
> yaml file and save for later use.

IMHO reading a large set of these strings is not necessarily faster than 
generating them when needed.  This depends however on what you want to 
do with this.  Can you disclose more detail about the problem you are 
trying to solve?

> The only way I would know how to do it is if it randomly generated them,
> pushed them into an array, and checked each one it generated against the
> array to see if it exists already. I would never truly know if the list
> is complete, because it would always be checking itself. So,
> suggestions, codes, help?!?!

Yes, this is a completely nonsensical approach for the type of problem 
at hand.

> Thanks to everyone in advance, I know this is a relatively large task,
> but this is a powerful community and programming language and I know it
> can be done.

The task is not that hard.  You'll might even find an implementation of 
combinations in the RAA.

Kind regards

	robert