(PowerShell) Generating Repeatable Random Data for Testing/Debugging

Demonstrates how to use the Fortuna PRNG to generate random-looking but repeatable non-random data for the purpose of testing and debugging.

Chilkat .NET Downloads Chilkat .NET Assemblies

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-9.5.0-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

# All Chilkat classes can be unlocked at once at the beginning of a program
# by calling UnlockBundle.  It requires a Bundle unlock code.
$chilkatGlob = New-Object Chilkat.Global
$success = $chilkatGlob.UnlockBundle("Anything for 30-day trial.")
if ($success -ne $true) {
    $($chilkatGlob.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$fortuna = New-Object Chilkat.Prng

# Normally an application would seed the PRNG with entropy from
# some real random source.  However, sometimes we want the same
# random sequence of bytes for testing and debugging purposes.
# This a reason why GetEntropy and AddEntropy are two different methods.
# An application could omit the call to GetEntropy, and instead pass
# non-random data to AddEntropy. For example:

# Seed the PRNG with non-entropy, so we get a repeatable sequence.
# Note: AddEntropy can be called any number of times.
$success = $fortuna.AddEntropy("01020304","hex")
$success = $fortuna.AddEntropy("hello world","ascii")

# Generate some random data:
$strRandHex = $fortuna.GenRandom(16,"hex")
$strRandBase64 = $fortuna.GenRandom(22,"base64")
$strRandBase58 = $fortuna.GenRandom(32,"base58")

$("hex random bytes: " + $strRandHex)
$("base64 random bytes: " + $strRandBase64)
$("base58 random bytes: " + $strRandBase58)

# Try it again with a different object to verify that the same results are obtained:
$fortuna2 = New-Object Chilkat.Prng

$success = $fortuna2.AddEntropy("01020304","hex")
$success = $fortuna2.AddEntropy("hello world","ascii")

$strRandHex = $fortuna2.GenRandom(16,"hex")
$strRandBase64 = $fortuna2.GenRandom(22,"base64")
$strRandBase58 = $fortuna2.GenRandom(32,"base58")

$("hex random bytes: " + $strRandHex)
$("base64 random bytes: " + $strRandBase64)
$("base58 random bytes: " + $strRandBase58)