String Generator

The string generator will help you in your testing by generating various types of strings that can be used for input when you , for example, need to test how long strings the application under test can handle or if it can handle other languages.

Counter string controls

Main view

Tabs

At the top there are tabs for the different types of strings that can be generated, select the one you are interested in to see the controls and settings for that specific type.

Resulting string

This box will contain the generated string and allows you to select only parts of it if desired. In case the string can't fit a scrollbar will appear automatically.

Automatically copy to clipboard

If this check-box is checked any generated string or manual selection of it will be automatically copied to the clipboard. If it is unchecked the copy button can be used to copy any selections instead.

Types of Strings

Counter String

Counter string controls

This will help you out by creating a string of the length specified in the length field and can be used to test how long strings an input field can handle, for example. The generated string will contain numeric values separated by the separator specified in the separator field (default is *). The value to the left of the separator always tells you what position the separator has in the string, this will allow you to easily see after exactly how many characters the input was cut off if that happens.
To generate a counter string enter the desired length and press the Enter key or click the generate button.
The +1 and -1 buttons is an easy way to make a string that is one character longer or shorter than the current value in the length field.
The Double and Half buttons create strings that are double or half the length of the current value in the length field.
The bisect buttons will help you do a binary search if needed. Imagine that you are testing how long input some application can handle, you start out by testing with an input string that is 1000 characters long and all you get is an error with no information at all. So you let the TestingTools generate a string that is half the length and this time the application happily accepts the input, now you know that the maximum length of input that the application accepts is somewhere between 500 to a 1000 characters. You press either the Bisect (Up) or Bisect (Down) button (at this specific point it does not matter which, it will give you the value in the middle between the two last values regardless since this is the starting point). Now you have a counter string that is 750 characters long, if the application accepts that you press Bisect (Up) and you will get a string whose length is the value in the middle between 750 and 1000. But if the application gave you the error again you would press Bisect (Down) which would give you a string whose length is the value in the middle between 500 and 750. By repeating this process you can quickly find out how long input the application under test will accept.

ASCII

ASCII string controls

To generate a specific ASCII character enter the code and press the Get button.
The Alphanumeric button will generate a string that contains all the alphanumeric ASCII characters.
The Printable button will generate a string containing all the printable ASCII characters (ASCII code 32-126).
The Extended button will generate a string containing the extended ASCII characters (ASCII code 128-255 using code page 437).
The All button will generate a string containing all the ASCII characters (ASCII code 32-255 using code page 437).

UTF-16

UTF-16 string controls

To generate a specific UTF-16 character enter the code in decimal form and click the Get button. The +1/-1 buttons provide an easy way to get the next/previous character
To generate a range of characters enter the start code and end code and then click the Get button to generate a string that contains all the characters in that range.
There are predefined ranges that can be generated by pressing the corresponding button, this can be helpful if you want to make sure that the application under test can handle Cyrillic, Greek, Thai or Japanese characters for example.

UTF-16 string example

GUID

This will generate a GUID (Microsoft's implementation of an UUID) encoded either as Hex, Base64 or Ascii85.

GUID example