| An instance of this class is used to generate a stream of
pseudorandom numbers. The class uses a 48-bit seed, which is
modified using a linear congruential formula. (See Donald Knuth,
The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3, Section 3.2.1.)
If two instances of
Random are created with the same
seed, and the same sequence of method calls is made for each, they
will generate and return identical sequences of numbers. In order to
guarantee this property, particular algorithms are specified for the
class
Random . Java implementations must use all the algorithms
shown here for the class
Random , for the sake of absolute
portability of Java code. However, subclasses of class
Random are permitted to use other algorithms, so long as they adhere to the
general contracts for all the methods.
The algorithms implemented by class
Random use a
protected utility method that on each invocation can supply
up to 32 pseudorandomly generated bits.
Many applications will find the method
Math.random simpler to use.
author:
Frank Yellin
version:
1.54, 05/05/07
since:
1.0 |
