You can use the following formula to generate an 8-character random password in Excel:
=CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)
Here is how this formula works:
- CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90)) generates a random uppercase letter
- RANDBETWEEN(0,9) generates a random number between 0 and 9
- CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122)) generates a random lowercase letter
We then use the & symbol to concatenate each of these random values together into one string.
The following example shows how to use this formula to generate a random password in Excel in practice.
Example: Generate Random Password in Excel
We will type the following formula into cell A2 in Excel to generate a random 8-character password that contains uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers:
=CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
The formula generates the random password of U0sjA1L2.
If we double click on cell A2 and press Enter, we can generate a brand new random password:
This time the formula generates the random password of J3hkR1J4.
Note that you can use any combination of the following formulas to generate a password with a different specific length:
- CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90)) to generate a random uppercase letter
- RANDBETWEEN(0,9) to generate a random number between 0 and 9
- CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122)) to generate a random lowercase letter
For example, we could type the following formula into cell A2 to generate only a three-character random password:
=CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(65,90))&RANDBETWEEN(0,9)&CHAR(RANDBETWEEN(97,122))
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
This time the formula generates the random password of H5k.
Feel free to use any combination of these functions that you’d like to generate a random password with a specific length.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Excel:
How to Generate Random Dates in Excel
How to Generate Random 4 Digit Numbers in Excel
How to Generate Random Number Between Range in Excel
