random

random([seed])

seed

return

non-negative integer

• Generates a random number which is a non-negative integer less than 2^32.
• If a non zero argument is specified, then after setting it as a random seed, a random number is generated.
• As the default seed is fixed, the sequence of the random numbers is always the same if a seed is not set.
• The algorithm is Mersenne Twister (http://www.math.keio.ac.jp/matsumoto/mt.html) by M. Matsumoto and T. Nishimura. The implementation is done also by themselves.
• The period of the random number sequence is 2^19937-1.
• One can save the state of the random number generator with mt_save. By loading the state file with mt_load, one can trace a single random number sequence arcoss multiple sessions.

References

section lrandom, section mt_save, mt_load.

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