How to solve PW Generator can´t handle specific Chars? - kotlin

Question

I´m new to Kotlin so first I start with a Password Generator. I do use IntelliJIDea
fun main() {
var helper = Int
var counter = 0
val counterOfPwCha = 10
var pwString = ""
val opportunityArray = arrayOf('A','C','a','c','B','b','D','d','E','e','F','f','#','+','*','$','%','&','§','G','g','H','h','I','i','J','j','k','K','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9',
'l','L','M','m','N','n','O','o','P','p','Q','q','R','r','S','s','T','t','U','u','V','v','W','w','Y','y','X','x','Z','z','<','>','|','?','!',)
while (counter <= counterOfPwCha)
{
helper = (0..73).random()
pwString += opportunityArray[helper]
counter++
}
println(pwString)
}
it workes fine, but the output isn´t what I expected.
Example: +3�2L%II>J�
So it cant handle some of my Chars, I can debug it until I know what kind of Char he can´t handle with and delete them from the Array, but they are all some typical PW Chars, so my question is:
How can I let Kotlin know, how to Handle these ASCI2 chars?
Or is it because of the $?

Answer 1

Avoid hardcoded numbers like the "73" in your range, it's way too error prone!
If you still get funny characters, put in some println that shows each character's numeric value so that you can lookup it using "man ascii".
A more Kotlin-like code would be:
fun pwgen() {
val counterOfPwCha = 10
val charset = ('A'..'Z') + ('a'..'z') + ('0'..'9') + listOf('#', '+', '*', '$', '%', '&', '§', '<', '>', '|', '?', '!')
val pwString = (1..counterOfPwCha)
.map {
val randomArrayIndex = charset.indices.random()
charset[randomArrayIndex]
}
.onEach { c -> println("Character $c = " + c.toInt()) }
.joinToString("")
println(pwString)
}

Answer 2

fun main() {
var helper = Int
var counter = 0
val counterOfPwCha = 10
var pwString = ""
val opportunityArray = arrayOf('A','C','a','c','B','b','D','d','E','e','F','f','#','+','*','$','%','&','§','G','g','H','h','I','i','J','j','k','K','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9',
'l','L','M','m','N','n','O','o','P','p','Q','q','R','r','S','s','T','t','U','u','V','v','W','w','Y','y','X','x','Z','z','<','>','|','?','!',)
while (counter <= counterOfPwCha)
{
helper = (0..73).random()
pwString += opportunityArray[helper]
counter++
}
println(pwString)
}