Currently $rand will only return a random number/letter within the range you specify, with the format $rand(START,END)
What i would like to see it be able to do is return a random CHARACTOR from a specified STRING of charactors. Therefor not limiting it to JUST letters or JUST numbers, and also not limiting it to a SINGLE specific range.
Possibly :: $rand(chrset, N) where N is the number of random charactors you want and chrset is the charactor set. eg. $rand(abcxyz1289, 4) would return 4 random charactors from the charactor set 'abcxyz1289'.
Other format possibilities that come to mind would be $rand(r1[|r2|r?...], N) where N is the number of random charactors you want (1 if not specified) and r1|r2 etc are the ranges that the charactor will be taken from. Ranges could be entered in as string (abcd) or as a range (a-z/1-999...)
eg1 $rand(ad|m-t|z1|6-9, 3) - would return 3 random charactors from the range 'admnopqrstz16789'
eg2 $rand(a-d) - would work as rand does now and return 1 charactor from the range 'abcd'
Infact after reading that back to myself i much prefer the second Syntax and would also function correctly to do what neophyte is asking.
