How to generate a random string in Ruby

I'm currently generating an 8-character pseudo-random uppercase string for "A" .. "Z":

value = ""; 8.times{value  << (65 + rand(25)).chr}

but it doesn't look clean, and it can't be passed as an argument since it isn't a single statement. To get a mixed-case string "a" .. "z" plus "A" .. "Z", I changed it to:

value = ""; 8.times{value << ((rand(2)==1?65:97) + rand(25)).chr}

but it looks like trash.

Does anyone have a better method?

Answer

(0...8).map { (65 + rand(26)).chr }.join

I spend too much time golfing.

(0...50).map { ('a'..'z').to_a[rand(26)] }.join

And a last one that's even more confusing, but more flexible and wastes fewer cycles:

o = [('a'..'z'), ('A'..'Z')].map(&:to_a).flatten
string = (0...50).map { o[rand(o.length)] }.join