CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM (Transact-SQL)

Returns a cryptographic random number generated by the Crypto API (CAPI). The output is a hexadecimal number of the specified number of bytes.

Topic link iconTransact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM ( length [ , seed ] )

Arguments

  • length
    The length of the number being created. Maximum is 8000. length is type int.

  • seed
    Optional data to use as a random seed. There must be at least length bytes of data. seed is varbinary(8000).

Returned Types

varbinary(8000)

Permissions

This function is public and does not require any special permissions.

Examples

A. Generating a random number

The following example generates a random number 50 bytes long.

SELECT CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM(50) ;

The following example generates a random number 4 bytes long using a 4-byte seed.

SELECT CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM(4, 0x25F18060) ;

See Also

Reference