I am used on other programming languages which let you set the distribution you want to use on a random number generator. I tried to find in docs the same for VB6, but I cannot even tell which distribution uses. (I guess it is the uniform)
Here is the documentation
And it easy to use as: Public Shared Function Rnd[(Number)] As Single
I still want to generate a random number between 0 and 1, but instead of uniform (or what the default Rnd uses), I want the normal distribution. Is there any way to do this in VB6 or you need a custom function?
There is nothing built in. You need a custom function - see this question for algorithms.
Related
Is there any non-global method of generating a seeded random number in LUA?
The function math.randomseed() sets the seed for the whole application (which is less than ideal) and if the code is executed async there is a risk that other parts of the application "steals" numbers from the sequence.
One good example from C# is the Random class where you can initialize a Random instance with a seeded number rather than setting the seed for the whole application: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.random.-ctor?view=netcore-3.1
No.
You might find some third-party library that does this though.
My lrandom library provides independent streams of random numbers. It can also reset and clone streams.
lrandom is a C library. For a plain Lua solution, see mt19937ar-lua.
I'm looking to use a specific set of seeds for the intrinsic function RANDOM_NUMBER (a PRNG). What I've read so far is that the seed value can be set via calling RANDOM_SEED, specifically RANDOM_SEED(GET = array). My confusion is how to (if it's possible) set a specific value for the algorithm, for instance in the RAND, RANDU, or RANDM algorithms one can specify their own seed directly. I'm not sure how to set the seed, as the get function seems to take an array. If it takes an array, does it always pull the seed value from a specific index in the array?
Basically, is there a way to set a specific single seed value? If so, would someone be able to write-it out?
As a side note - I'm attempting to set my seed because allegedly one of the other PRNGs I mentioned only works well with "large odd numbers" according to my professor, so I decided that I may as well control this when comparing the PRNG's.
First, the RANDOM_SEED is only used for controlimg the seed of RANDOM_NUMBER(). If you use any other random number generator subroutine or function, it will not affect them at all or if yes then in some compiler specific way which you must find in the manual. But most probably it does not affect them.
Second, you should not care at all whether the seed array contains 1, 4 or 42 integers, it doesn't matter because the PRNG uses the bits from the whole array in some unspecified custom way. For example you may be generating 64 bit real numbers, but the seed array is made of 32 bit integers. You cannot simply say which integer from the seed array does what. You can view the whole seed array as one big integer number that is cut into smaller pieces if you want.
Regarding your professors advice, who knows what he meant, but the seed is probably set by some procedure of that particular generator, and not by the standard RANDOM_SEED, so you must read the documentation for that generator.
And how to use a specific seed in RANDOM_SEED? It was described on this site several times,jkust search for RANDOM_SEED in the top right search field, really. But it is simple, once you know the size of the array, size it to any non-trivial numbers (you need enough non-zero bits) you want and use put=. That's really all, just don't think about individual values in the array, the whole array is one piece of data together.
I am using the rgsl library in Rust that wraps functions from the C GSL math libraries. I was using a random number generator function, but I am always getting the same exact value whenever I generate a new random number. I imagine that the number should vary upon each run of the function. Is there something that I am missing? Do I need to set a new random seed each time or such?
extern crate rgsl;
use rgsl::Rng;
fn main() {
rgsl::RngType::env_setup();
let t = rgsl::rng::default();
let r = Rng::new(&t).unwrap()
let val = rgsl::randist::binomial::binomial(&r, 0.01f64, 1u32);
print!("{}",val);
}
The value I keep getting is 1, which seems really high considering the probability of obtaining a 1 is 0.01.
The documentation for env_setup explains everything you need to know:
This function reads the environment variables GSL_RNG_TYPE and GSL_RNG_SEED and uses their values to set the corresponding library variables gsl_rng_default and gsl_rng_default_seed
If you don’t specify a generator for GSL_RNG_TYPE then gsl_rng_mt19937 is used as the default. The initial value of gsl_rng_default_seed is zero.
(Emphasis mine)
Like all software random number generators, this is really an algorithm that produces pseudo random numbers. The algorithm and the initial seed uniquely identify a sequence of these numbers. Since the seed is always the same, the first (and second, third, ...) number in the sequence will always be the same.
So if I want to generate a new series of random numbers, then I need to change the seed each time. However, if I use the rng to generate a set of random seeds, then I will get the same seeds each time.
That's correct.
Other languages don't seem to have this constraint, meaning that the seed can be manually set if desired, but is otherwise is random.
A classical way to do this is to seed your RNG with the current time. This produces an "acceptable" seed for many cases. You can also get access to true random data from the operating system and use that as a seed or mix it in to produce more random data.
Is there no way to do this in Rust?
This is a very different question. If you just want a random number generator in Rust, use the rand crate. This uses techniques like I described above.
You could even do something crazy like using random values from the rand crate to seed your other random number generator. I just assumed that there is some important reason you are using that crate instead of rand.
Is it possible to reverse a pseudo random number generator?
For example, take an array of generated numbers and get the original seed.
If so, how would this be implemented?
This is absolutely possible - you just have to create a PRNG which suits your purposes. It depends on exactly what you need to accomplish - I'd be happy to offer more advice if you describe your situation in more detail.
For general background, here are some resources for inverting a Linear Congruential Generator:
Reversible pseudo-random sequence generator
pseudo random distribution which guarantees all possible permutations of value sequence - C++
And here are some for inverting the mersenne twister:
http://www.randombit.net/bitbashing/2009/07/21/inverting_mt19937_tempering.html
http://b10l.com/reversing-the-mersenne-twister-rng-temper-function/
In general, no. It should be possible for most generators if you have the full array of numbers. If you don't have all of the numbers or know which numbers you have (do you have the 12th or the 300th?), you can't figure it out at all, because you wouldn't know where to stop.
You would have to know the details of the generator. Decoding a linear congruential generator is going to be different from doing so for a counter-based PRNG, which is going to be different from the Mersenne twister, which is going to be different with a Fibonacci generator. Plus you would probably need to know the parameters of the generator. If you had all of that AND the equation to generate a number is invertible, then it is possible. As to how, it really depends on the PRNG.
Use the language Janus a time-reversible language for doing reversible computing.
You could probably do something like create a program that does this (pseudo-code):
x = seed
x = my_Janus_prng(x)
x = reversible_modulus_op(x, N) + offset
Janus has the ability to give to you a program that takes the output number and whatever other data it needs to invert everything, and give you the program that ends with x = seed.
I don't know all the details about Janus or how you could do this, but just thought I would mention it.
Clearly, what you want to do is probably a better idea because if the RNG is not an injective function, then what should it map back to etc.
So you want to write a Janus program that outputs an array. The input to the Janus inverted program would then take an array (ideally).
I want to generate a sequence of random numbers that will be used to pick tiles for a "maze". Each maze will have an id and I want to use that id as a seed to a pseudo random function. That way I can generate the same maze over and over given it's maze id. Preferably I do not want to use a built in pseudo random function in a language since I do not have control over the algorithm and it could change from platform to platform. As such, I would like to know:
How should I go about implementing my own pseudo random function?
Is it even feasible to generate platform independent pseudo random numbers?
Yes, it is possible.
Here is an example of such an algorithm (and its use) for noise generation.
Those particular random functions (Noise1, Noise2, Noise3, ..) use input parameters and calculate the pseudo random values from there.
Their output range is from 0.0 to 1.0.
And there are many more out there (Like mentioned in the comments).
UPDATE 2019
Looking back at this answer, a better suited choice would be the below-mentioned mersenne twister. Or you could find any implementation of xorshift.
The Mersenne Twister may be a good pick for this. As you can see from the pseudocode on wikipedia, you can seed the RNG with whatever you prefer to produce identical values for any instance with that seed. In your case, the maze ID or the hash of the maze ID.
If you are using Python, you can use the random module by typing at the beginning,
import random. Then, to use it, you type-
var = random.randint(1000, 9999)
This gives the var a 4 digit number that can be used for its id
If you are using another language, there is likely a similar module