Java Generating Better Random Numbers

Java Generating Better Random Numbers

Problem

You need to generate better random numbers.

Solution

Construct a java.util.Random object (not just any old random object) and call its
next*( ) methods. These methods include nextBoolean( ) , nextBytes( ) (which fills
the given array of bytes with random values), nextDouble( ) , nextFloat( ) , nextInt( ) ,
and nextLong( ) . Don’t be confused by the capitalization of Float , Double , etc. They
return the primitive types boolean , float , double , etc., not the capitalized wrapper
objects. Clear enough? Maybe an example will help:

// Random2.java
// java.util.Random methods are non-static, so need to construct
Random r = new Random( );
for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
System.out.println("A double from java.util.Random is " + r.nextDouble( ));
for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
System.out.println("An integer from java.util.Random is " + r.nextInt( ));

You can also use the java.util.Random nextGaussian( ) method, as shown next. The nextDouble( ) methods try to give a “flat” distribution between 0 and 1.0, in which each value has an equal chance of being selected. A Gaussian or normal distribution is a bell-curve of values from negative infinity to positive infinity, with the majority of the values around zero (0.0).

// Random3.java
Random r = new Random( );
for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
System.out.println("A gaussian random double is " + r.nextGaussian( ));

See Also

The Javadoc documentation for java.util.Random , and the warning in the Introduc- tion about pseudo-randomness versus real randomness. For cryptographic use, see class java.security.SecureRandom , which provides crypto- graphically strong pseudo-random number generators (PRNG).