Randoming symbols from a-Z - sas

Question

I need to generate a string from random characters in range of a-Z. How can i do it?
Atm, i can only suggest randoming numbers in range of 1-52 and then reinitialize numbers with charecters. But that sounds awful.

Answer 1

CALL RANPERM seems well suited for this task.
25 data shuffle(keep=a: drop=addr);
26 array a[52] $1;
27 addr = addrlong(a1);
28 call pokelong(cat(collate(65,90),collate(97,122)),addr,52);
29 put #20 a[*];
30 seed=1234567890123;
31 do n=1 to 10;
32 call ranperm(seed,of a[*]);
33 put seed= #20 a[*];
34 output;
35 end;
36 stop;
37 run;
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
seed=295748501 i U I K e d H R b E D k u N c v B M T Z G V n A s W h r q Q j F J o x X O p g t Y w z P C m S l L f a y
seed=766887342 z F v U N G M q u H P Q Z d y b X l a D f p Y w m o r V A B n J I j e g c S x R T K O L i s k C h E W t
seed=618158873 L v x k T r c m S e F w n Z K G P t q E W C h M z X p d N o H Y V i s Q u y f B J O g l U R D b I a j A
seed=632090736 J l H Y T R A p N x C v U b w K V W d X t L y E G o Q B M z I S n q k f s O F P D j a r m i c g Z h e u
seed=1911942895 t G j Z e K q H x m L F A g T h v W a y V C B M k I r J S R P s Y Q p w O D E l X U o z u N d f n i b c
seed=479260872 Y Q i d P R z S G B a D K Z X j M E b h T m c e C I n x y w o A k r U f H u l N W s v J p L q O t g V F
seed=1143672881 L X i f a u m K T g x p E M o B q Z s c t A Q I P G D z U d H S y V J F j h r e l v C b k Y W R O w N n
seed=869134054 F D U g G w A Y J o e p r b H z q d l I L M v R W h y m t S n V x T P C K B k O Q i j s c N f Z a X E u
seed=481233318 n h P j V M y S W s m F a G l q f d o O A u T I E p k z b e C X t v Q H i w c U g Z K B R N L x r D J Y
seed=1445828380 d P t o N h c R r M l n E y g F x z S a W L G p w T Q k B H e v I K i b f q X C m Y D J Z V j A U u O s

Answer 2

You can use the byte function, along with a random number, to generate a random character. Just loop the desired number of times and combine the results with call cats. The byte function returns the relevant character from the ASCII table. For your example you need ASCII numbers 65-90 (A-Z) and 97-122 (a-z). The following code will generate a random sequence of 6 characters.
data _null_;
length z $6 y $1;
do x=1 to 6;
do until (rank(y) in (65:90,97:122)); /* ASCII characters A-Z, a-z */
y=byte(65+floor((1+122-65)*rand("uniform"))); /* Generate random integer between 65 and 122 */
end;
call cats(z,y); /* concatenate values */
end;
putlog z;
run;