9
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This blog post about generating random CSS color codes in JavaScript have multiple solutions for generating a random color in JavaScript. The shortest I can find is this:

'#'+(Math.random()*0xffffff).toString(16).slice(-6)

If you are not familiar with CSS color code read documentations here.

Can we do better? What about other languages?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Yours is broken, you're missing a + after the '#' \$\endgroup\$ – Doorknob♦ Sep 16 '13 at 22:29
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    \$\begingroup\$ You can remove the slice by doing this #'+(Math.random()*0xffffff|0).toString(16) \$\endgroup\$ – Griffin Sep 17 '13 at 10:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ What is the "0xffffff" needed for? I'm not seeing much of a difference in my results without it. \$\endgroup\$ – path411 Sep 17 '13 at 22:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ @path411 Theoretically, Math.random().toString(16) can produce a representation with less than 6 hex-digits after the (hexa)decimal point, in which case the function would break. For example, 0.1658172607421875 becomes 0.2A73 in hex. \$\endgroup\$ – primo Sep 18 '13 at 8:51
24
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PHP 23 bytes

#<?=md5(rand())&ÿÿÿÿÿÿ;

Where ÿ is character 255. Bitwise and will truncate the string returned from md5, which is already in hexadecimal format.

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    \$\begingroup\$ This is one of my favourite solutions on the site. \$\endgroup\$ – Griffin Sep 17 '13 at 10:08
7
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Three character codes are valid too, so I can save some chars (4095 == 0xfff):

Ruby, 24 23 22 18

'#%03x'%rand(4095)

If I have to use a 6-char one, then:

Ruby, 28 27 26 24 20

Shaved one character off because 8**8-1 == 0xffffff

'#%06x'%rand(8**8-1)

Thanks to chron for the format string, saving 4 chars!

Cheating (with this xkcd strip in mind):

Ruby/JS/Python/Perl/lots more, 6 (or 5)

"#a83"

I assure you, I generated it randomly!

An even cheatier version:

"red"
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  • \$\begingroup\$ You don't need parentheses for method calls in Ruby, right? \$\endgroup\$ – Mohsen Sep 16 '13 at 22:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Mohsen Yes, but Ruby gets confused and thinks I'm calling to_s on 4095 if I omit them. \$\endgroup\$ – Doorknob♦ Sep 16 '13 at 22:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ You can get it down to 20 with a sprintf format string: '#%06x'%rand(8**8-1) \$\endgroup\$ – Paul Prestidge Sep 17 '13 at 0:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ @chron Nice, thanks! Editing \$\endgroup\$ – Doorknob♦ Sep 17 '13 at 0:05
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Javascript

'#'+Math.random().toString(16).substr(2,6)

Just a little shorter at 42.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure why this was downvoted. It works fine in every browser I've tested. +1 \$\endgroup\$ – primo Sep 17 '13 at 6:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ #'+Math.random().toString(16).slice(-6) \$\endgroup\$ – Mohsen Sep 17 '13 at 22:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Mohsen nice! Didn't know slice could do negatives. \$\endgroup\$ – tristin Sep 18 '13 at 1:08
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Fish 79

vnnnnnnnn 
601234567;
>xxxxxxxx<
 89""""""?
 nnABCDEF:
 vv""""""-
 vvoooooo1
 >>>>>>>>^

Not the shortest solution in the world, but it was fun to code :)

It's also not a uniform distribution, but all outputs have a non-zero probability 7 and F are most likely digits.

Outputs:

python fish.py randomColor.fish
07FFF7

python fish.py randomColor.fish
07EFD7

python fish.py randomColor.fish
366F67

python fish.py randomColor.fish
977FD7

python fish.py randomColor.fish
97F7F7

python fish.py randomColor.fish
87F6FF
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  • \$\begingroup\$ Does anyone know the easiest way to get uniform distribution on the random number? The solution I tried got pretty big \$\endgroup\$ – Cruncher Nov 5 '13 at 20:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ I made a 450 char version that is a uniform distribution if anyone wants to see it xD. It can probably be improved. \$\endgroup\$ – Cruncher Nov 5 '13 at 21:58
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APL (17)

'#',(⎕D,⎕A)[6?16]

Explanation:

  • 6?16: 6 random numbers from 1 to 16
  • ⎕D,⎕A: the digits (0..9) followed by the alphabet (A..Z) (but only the first 16 values are ever used, i.e. 0..F)
  • '#',: add a # to the front
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  • \$\begingroup\$ 6?16 is 6 non-repeating random values though, that narrows the colorspace a bit... \$\endgroup\$ – mniip Feb 17 '14 at 15:27
1
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Bash (51)

od -N4 -An -tx /dev/urandom | cut -c2-7 | sed s/^/#/
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