$Random

Get next random number

Most Sirius $functions have been deprecated in favor of Object Oriented methods. The OO equivalent for the $Random function is the RandomNumberGenerator class.

This function returns either an unpredictable random number, or the next number in a series of random numbers.

$Random accepts three optional arguments and returns an integer number.

The first argument specifies the smallest value that will be returned; the minimum value of this argument is the same as its default: -1,000,000,000.

The second argument specifies the greatest value that will be returned; the maximum value of this argument is the same as its default: 1,000,000,000. This argument must be greater than the smallest value that will be returned.

The third argument is a %variable or IMAGE item that was set to a random number seed using $Random_Seed. This argument must be a string of length at least 144. If this argument is omitted, the number returned is unpredictable; if it is present, the seed determines a specific series of random numbers, and each call to $Random returns the next number in that series.

Syntax

%result = $Random(minimum, maximum, %SEED)

%result contains a random number greater than or equal to minimum and less than or equal to maximum.

If any argument is invalid, the request is cancelled.

In the following example

%I = 5 REPEAT WHILE %I GT 0 %N = $Random(1, 52) IF %CARD(%N) NE THEN PRINT %CARD(%N) %I = %I - 1 %CARD(%N) = END IF END REPEAT

an unpredictable hand of 5 playing cards is "dealt".

In the following example

%HAND STRING LEN 144 REPEAT FOREVER %X = $READ('Pick a 4-digit hand number') IF %X EQ 0 THEN %X = $Random(1, 9999) END IF IF %X GT 0 AND %X LT 10000 THEN LOOP END END IF PRINT 'I said a 4 digit number!' END REPEAT PRINT 'You are playing hand number' AND %X %X = $Random_Seed(%HAND, %X) %I = 5 REPEAT WHILE %I GT 0 %N = $Random(1, 52, %HAND) IF %CARD(%N) NE THEN PRINT %CARD(%N) %I = %I - 1 %CARD(%N) = END IF END REPEAT

a hand of 5 playing cards is "dealt", and the "player" can either ask for the particular hand to play, or can just hit enter, and get an unpredictable hand.

Products authorizing $Random

• Sirius functions
• Fast/Unload User Language Interface
• Janus Open Client
• Janus Open Server
• Janus Sockets
• Janus Web Server
• Japanese functions
• Sir2000 Field Migration Facility