RE: Controlling ('rand') random number upper limit

[Joel Fritz <JFritz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

in rpg if you prototype rand() as rand,

eval randomnumber = %rem(rand : high - low + 1) + low 

It's probably about the same amount of machine work, but it saves you having
to hard code anything.  It will only work for sure if the high and low
values are both signed integers (the data type of rand()) or you check for
overflow on the size of the range.
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Jackson [mailto:paulgjackson@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 4:47 PM
> To: RPG400-L@midrange.com
> Subject: Re: Controlling ('rand') random number upper limit
> 
> 
> Thanks to all who replied.
> 
> I finally got the algorithm for returning a random
> number within a specified range (lo,hi).
> 
> FinalRandomNbr = ((NbrFromRandFunc / 32768) *
> ((HiRange - LoRange) + 1)) + LoRange
> 
> NbrFromRandFunc is an integer in the range 0 thru
> 32767 inclusive.
> It is divided by 32768 to return a number between 0
> and 1.
> The result is multipied by the total number of
> different values possible and LoRange is added to bump
> it into the correct range.
> 
> If there is an easier way of doing it please let me
> know.
> 
> -Paul
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