** Random Number Generator **

[Steve Lai]

Hi Everyone, I have a question regarding generating random number. Is there a function that can generate random number between a range without having the random number repeat itself? For example, let's say I have 100 records in a database. i want to randomly select a certain number of records upon user input and make it as a new table. if i use rand() function, and mod the numbers by 100, i'll get the numbers between 1 and 100, which then i can use to set the position of the record to copy that row of data. but the numbers might repeat themself if i select a large amount of records out of the 100. is there a way to check the random number generated to see if it has already been selected before? If anyone knows, plmk. thanks steve

[Erik Funkenbusch]

== false) { // do your code gen[x] = true; } else { // try again }

[WoR]

Hi Steve, A standard procedure for this problem is to generate a sequence 1..n and pemutate these numbers randomly (n log n times should do the job). This is efficient if you want to access a certain number of items mutliple times. Wolfgang