RE: SQL RAND() Function

Sounds like there are 32768 "steps" between zero and one in the floating
point number returned by RAND().



Instead of:

RAND()*999999999

try this:

INT(RAND()*9999)*100000 + INT(RAND()*99999)



That will generate a 9-digit number by combining a 4-digit random number
with a 5-digit random number.



A quick check for 999,618 records produced 998,487 unique values. The same
check using RAND()*999999999 produced 32,768 unique values.



Have fun!



Richard



From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mark Murphy/STAR BASE
Consulting Inc.
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 4:02 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: SQL RAND() Function



This might be of interest to some of you, I wanted generate 9 digit random
numbers to sort a file in a random order. Turns out that though you can
indeed generate a 9 digit random number, RAND() will only provide 32768
unique values. I expected more given that it returns a double precision
float, but 32768 is all you get.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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