Re: $RANDOM is never equal to the next $RANDOM

[Chet Ramey]

zavandi wrote:
> Chet Ramey <chet@caleb.ins.cwru.edu> wrote:
>
> > Why would you expect $RANDOM to return the same value twice in succession?
>
>
> I don't expect it to always return the same value twice in succession,
> but if the values are independent of one another, there is a 1/32768
> probability the second value will be equal to the first (or I'm
> missing something?).

Mathematically that's correct, but since having $RANDOM return the same
value twice in a row would greatly diminish its practical use, there is
special code in there to prevent it.

Chet

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
( ``Discere est Dolere'' -- chet )
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Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.tis.cwru.edu/~chet/