Add Faker::Alphanumeric

[mtancoigne]

Simple alphanumeric generator for random alphanumeric strings. I think it's useful to have the ability to create simple (unique) strings.

From the documentation:

Faker::Alphanumeric.alpha 10 #=> "zlvubkrwga"
Faker::Alphanumeric.alphanum 10 #=> "3yfq2phxtb"

• Class
• New tests
• New doc
• Rubocoped

[vbrazo]

Overall looks good. I just left a few comments.

Did you know that we have a Faker::String object? What do you think about adding these methods to the Faker::String?

[vbrazo]

It should be It might be available in the next version.

[stympy]

Don't we already have this in Faker::Lorem.characters?

[vbrazo]

@stympy hmm you're right. Thanks!

[mtancoigne]

Hmmm, alright if it's already in Lorem, but how can we make this more obvious ? The generators list is pretty big, and I think that Lorem is not a really good place for random chars. maybe writing side notes near the generator link in the readme ? (i'm sure we can't move the generator from lorem to string for retro-compatibility)

Something like

[...]
  - [Faker::LordOfTheRings](doc/lord_of_the_rings.md)
  - [Faker::Lorem](doc/lorem.md) (Lorem ipsum strings, words, and random alphanumeric strings)
  - [Faker::LoremFlickr](doc/lorem_flickr.md)
[...]

[vbrazo]

Since the functionality is the same in both cases, I think a possible solution would be creating an alias.

[mtancoigne]

Right, and lorem lacks the "letters only" generator. I'll do it for next weekend, i'm taking some days off.

[mtancoigne]

I updated Lorem.characters to return Alphanum.alphanum, I think it makes sense to do it this way. Tell me if you prefer the call to be inverted.

[mtancoigne]

Is this PR ok for you now ?

[vbrazo]

what other methods do you believe we could implement in the Faker::AlphaNum? @mtancoigne it doesn't need to be official and done in the PR. I'm just curious.

[mtancoigne]

@vbrazo I don't really know, what kind of string can we put here that are simple enough to fit here, but not in another class ? It's really generic, but maybe we can include an "uppercase" option, and maybe a mix of lower/uppercase option too, in order to have more choice...

[vbrazo]

ok cool. We've added several modules recently based on contributors' suggestions. Just asking you because I'm afraid of adding another module that could eventually have only two methods. We'll come with namespaces soon and then this concern will disappear. I agree and believe that Alphanum could have other methods @mtancoigne

[vbrazo]

You forgot to remove resolve in Faker::Lorem

[vbrazo]

hum.. you're using resolve in other internal methods there. Nevermind

[vbrazo]

actually you could call it Faker::Lorem.resolve instead of duplicating the lines or do the inverse

[vbrazo]

same thing for ALPHANUMS

[josephgrossberg]

Would you consider using Faker::Alphanumeric instead of Faker::Alphanum?

It seems that (most?) other Fakers are not abbreviated.

[mtancoigne]

I updated the class name to Alphanumeric; method alphanum to alphanumeric, but kept alpha method name for letters only. If you have a better name, i'll update this one too.

[mtancoigne]

@vbrazo thanks for the changes !