Phoney
Generate realistic fake data for testing, development, and anonymization
Overview
Phoney is a comprehensive fake data generator designed for developers who need realistic test data. It supports over 50 locales and generates everything from names and emails to complete user profiles with financial information.
50+ Locales
Generate locale-specific data for countries worldwide with proper name formats, phone numbers, and cultural considerations.
Complete Profiles
Create full user profiles including names, contact information, demographics, and financial data in one call.
Zero Dependencies
Lightweight and fast with no external dependencies. Perfect for CI/CD pipelines and production environments.
Installation
Get started with Phoney in seconds using pip or your preferred package manager.
pip install phoney
Or install from GitHub for the latest features:
pip install git+https://github.com/YTstyo/phoney.git
Quick Start
Jump right in with these common usage patterns and examples.
Basic Usage
from phoney import Phoney # Initialize the generator phoney = Phoney() # Generate individual data print(phoney.first_name(locale='de_DE')) # → 'Hans' print(phoney.phone(locale='ja_JP')) # → '+81 90-1234-5678' print(phoney.email('John', 'Doe')) # → 'john.doe@example.com'
Complete Profile Generation
# Generate a complete profile profile = phoney.profile(locale='fr_FR') print(profile) # Output: # { # 'first_name': 'Marie', # 'last_name': 'Dubois', # 'full_name': 'Marie Dubois', # 'gender': 'female', # 'age': 28, # 'birthdate': '1995-03-15', # 'email': 'marie.dubois@example.fr', # 'phone': '+33 6 12 34 56 78', # 'username': 'marie_dubois_95', # 'credit_card': { # 'issuer': 'Visa', # 'number': '4532123456789012', # 'expiry': '12/2028', # 'cvv': '123' # }, # 'locale': 'fr_FR' # }
Financial Data Generation
from phoney.financial import FinancialDataGenerator # Generate financial data financial = FinancialDataGenerator(locale='en_US') data = financial.generate() print(data) # Output: # { # 'credit_card': { # 'issuer': 'MasterCard', # 'number': '5555444433332222', # 'expiry': '08/2027', # 'cvv': '456' # }, # 'iban': 'US64SVBKUS6S3300958879', # 'bic': 'SVBKUS6S' # }
Features
Comprehensive data generation capabilities for all your testing needs.
- Generate names, emails, phones, and addresses for 50+ locales
- Create complete user profiles with demographics and preferences
- Generate financial data including credit cards, IBANs, and BICs
- Create usernames, passwords, and social media handles
- Generate UUIDs, user agents, and other technical identifiers
- Zero dependencies for easy integration
- Lightweight and performant
- Extensive locale support with cultural accuracy
- Modular architecture for custom implementations
Modules
Phoney is organized into focused modules that handle specific data generation tasks.
age.py
Generate random ages and birthdates with configurable ranges. Supports age constraints for realistic demographics.
generate_age(min_age=18, max_age=80)
agent.py
Create realistic browser user agent strings for desktop and mobile devices across different browsers and versions.
generate_user_agent(device_type="desktop")
create_profile.py
Generate complete user profiles combining data from all other modules. Includes names, contact info, username, and financial data.
generate_profile(locale, gender=None)
data_loader.py
Load and manage locale-specific data including names, phone formats, and email domains from organized data files.
load_names(locale)
get_available_locales()
emailgen.py
Create realistic email addresses based on names and locale-specific domain patterns with various formatting styles.
generate_email(first_name, last_name, locale)
financial.py
Generate fake financial data including valid credit card numbers, IBANs, BICs, and other banking information.
FinancialDataGenerator(locale='en_US')
person.py
Generate person data including first names, last names, and genders based on locale-specific cultural patterns.
generate_person(locale, gender=None)
phone.py
Create phone numbers in the correct format for any locale with proper country codes and regional patterns.
generate_phone(locale=None)
username.py
Generate usernames, secure passwords, social media handles, and complete online presence profiles.
generate_username(first_name, last_name)
uuidgen.py
Generate UUIDs (universally unique identifiers) of various versions (v1, v3, v4, v5) for different use cases.
generate_uuid(version=4)
career.py
Job titles with levels, salary ranges per locale, employment history and skills lists.
generate_job_title()
generate_salary()
generate_employment_history()
generate_skills()
internet.py
Domains, URLs, hostnames, IPv4/IPv6 and MAC addresses. Locale-aware TLDs; country/region-aware IPv4/IPv6 with data file overrides.
generate_tld(locale=None)
generate_domain(tld=None, locale=None)
generate_url(scheme='https', domain=None, path_segments=None, query_params=None, locale=None)
generate_ipv4(country=None, locale=None)
generate_ipv6(global_unicast=True, country=None, locale=None)
generate_mac()
Internet Data Files
Override built-in defaults by adding files under phoney/data/internet.
•
tlds.txt — Preferred TLDs, one per line•
words.txt — Wordlist used for domains and paths•
ipv4_prefixes.<CC>.txt — Country IPv4 CIDRs, one per line (e.g., ipv4_prefixes.GB.txt)•
ipv6_prefixes.<CC>.txt — Country IPv6 CIDRs, one per line (e.g., ipv6_prefixes.JP.txt)ipv4_prefixes.<CC>.txt and ipv6_prefixes.<CC>.txt from RIR delegated datasets.1) Download the following files to
tools/data/:delegated-apnic-extended-latest, delegated-arin-extended-latest, delegated-ripencc-extended-latest, delegated-lacnic-extended-latest, delegated-afrinic-extended-latest2) Run the builder:
python tools/build_prefixes.pyphoney/data/internet.
Tip: Use the one-step PowerShell helper on Windows:
./tools/fetch_and_build_prefixes.ps1API Reference
Complete reference for the Phoney class and all available methods.
• country (str): ISO country code, e.g. 'GB'
• locale (str): Locale like 'en_GB' or 'en-GB' (also accepts bare 'GB')
Returns: str - IPv4 address
• global_unicast (bool): when True (default), ensures address is from 2000::/3 if no locale/country match
• country (str): ISO country code, e.g. 'JP'
• locale (str): Locale like 'ja_JP' or 'ja-JP' (also accepts bare 'JP')
Returns: str - IPv6 address
phoney = Phoney() # No parameters required for initialization
• locale (str): Locale code (e.g., 'en_US', 'fr_FR')
• gender (str): 'male' or 'female', None for random
Returns: str - First name
• locale (str): Locale code
• gender (str): 'male' or 'female', None for random
Returns: dict - Complete profile with name, age, contact info, username, and credit card data
• locale (str): Locale code
Returns: str - Formatted phone number with country code
• first_name (str): First name
• last_name (str): Last name
• locale (str): Locale code for domain selection
Returns: str - Email address
• first_name (str): First name
• last_name (str): Last name
Returns: str - Username
Supported Locales
Phoney supports over 50 locales across different regions with culturally appropriate data.
Asian Locales
European Locales
Middle East & Africa
Examples
Real-world examples of how to use Phoney in your projects.
Creating Test Users for a Database
from phoney import Phoney # Create test users for different locales phoney = Phoney() users = [] locales = ['en_US', 'de_DE', 'fr_FR', 'ja_JP', 'es_ES'] for locale in locales: for i in range(5): user = phoney.profile(locale=locale) users.append(user) # Now you have 25 realistic test users from 5 different countries print(f"Created {len(users)} test users") for user in users[:3]: # Show first 3 print(f"{user['full_name']} ({user['locale']}) - {user['email']}")
Testing User Registration Flow
from phoney import Phoney from phoney.username import generate_password phoney = Phoney() def create_test_registration_data(): # Generate a realistic test user profile = phoney.profile(locale='en_US') return { 'first_name': profile['first_name'], 'last_name': profile['last_name'], 'email': profile['email'], 'phone': profile['phone'], 'username': profile['username'], 'password': generate_password(min_length=8, max_length=12), 'date_of_birth': profile['birthdate'], 'user_agent': phoney.user_agent() } # Use in your tests test_user = create_test_registration_data() # POST to /api/register with test_user data
Generating Sample Data for Development
import json from phoney import Phoney phoney = Phoney() # Generate sample data for frontend development sample_data = { 'customers': [], 'orders': [], 'products': [] } # Create 100 sample customers for i in range(100): customer = phoney.profile() sample_data['customers'].append({ 'id': i + 1, 'name': customer['full_name'], 'email': customer['email'], 'phone': customer['phone'], 'age': customer['age'], 'country': customer['locale'].split('_')[1], 'created_at': '2024-01-01' }) # Save to JSON file with open('sample_data.json', 'w') as f: json.dump(sample_data, f, indent=2) print("Sample data generated successfully!")