What is the purpose of the PHP function in the code snippet provided?

The purpose of the PHP function in the code snippet is to generate a random password of a specified length. This function is useful for creating secure passwords for user accounts or other authentication purposes.

function generateRandomPassword($length = 8) {
    $characters = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!@#$%^&*()';
    $password = '';
    
    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $password .= $characters[rand(0, strlen($characters) - 1)];
    }
    
    return $password;
}

// Example usage
$randomPassword = generateRandomPassword(12);
echo $randomPassword;