PMDF Programmer's Reference Manual
PMDF-PRM-6.0

Generate a unique, eighteen character string.

VMS FORMAT

status = PMDF_get_unique_string (string, string_len)

C FORMAT

status = PMDFgetUniqueString (string, string_len)

int PMDFgetUniqueString (string, string_len) 
         char *string; 
         int  *string_len; 

ARGUMENTS

string

String to receive the psuedo-random unique character string. Length must be at least 18 bytes. (19 bytes for PMDFgetUniqueString.)

string_len

Length in bytes of the unique string. Callers using PMDFgetUniqueString must, on input, supply the maximum length in bytes of the string buffer.

DESCRIPTION

PMDF_get_unique_string will return a psuedo-random character string composed of a fixed number of characters chosen from the thirty-six character alphabet 0, 1, 2, ..., 9, A, B, C, ..., Z. On OpenVMS and NT systems, this string will be 18 characters long and unique cluster-wide (i.e., no two calls made in the same cluster will generate the same string). On UNIX systems, the string is 14 characters long. PMDF_get_unique_string is a useful utility for programs which need to generate, for instance, unique file names. Note that the generated string may begin with a numeral. Thus, on file systems which require that file names begin with a non-numeric character, a character such as a A should be prepended to the string to produce a valid file name. Truncating the string will compromise its uniqueness.