It seems like a no brainer but I am having trouble to get this solved:
I would like to calculate a level based on given experience points (exp). Therefore I use the cube root formula and round down to the next whole number. The next level is reached when exp exactly reaches level^3. The number of levels is unlimited, so I would avoid having a pre-calculated lookup table.
When I use the standard php math
floor( pow( 10648, 1/3))
It returns 21 instead of 22. This is wrong since 21^3 gives 92161. The reason is that due to limited floating point precision pow(10648, 1/3) returns not exactly 22, instead it returns 21.9993112732.
You can check it out with the following snippet:
$lvl = pow( 10647, (float) 1 / 3);
print number_format( $lvl, 10);
This is my workaround. But I am not sure if this is bulletproof:
public static function getLevel($exp) {
$lvl = floor(pow($exp, (float) 1 / 3)); // calculate the level
if (pow($lvl + 1, 3) == $exp) { // make check
$lvl++; // correct
}
return $lvl;
}
Also it looks a bit fragile when it comes to the check. So the question remains:
Is there a reliable, efficient and bulletproof way of calculating cube root (of positive numbers).
Thanks.
I think this is the only modification your code needs:
public static function getLevel($exp) {
$lvl = floor(pow($exp, (float) 1 / 3));
if (pow($lvl + 1, 3) <= $exp) { // compare with <= instead of ==
$lvl++;
}
return $lvl;
}
If you need 100% reliable results, you should probably use the GMP library for arbitrary precision calculations.
The gmp_root function should do what you need. You'll need PHP version 5.6 or newer with the GMP extension enabled.
$num = gmp_init(10648);
$third_root = gmp_root($num, 3);
var_dump(gmp_strval($third_root)); // string(2) "22"
If the GMP library is inconvenient for you and you're guaranteed that your number has an integer root then you can try the following:
function getLevel($base, $root = 3.0) {
$exact = pow($base, 1.0 / $root);
$ceil = ceil($exact);
$floor = floor($exact);
if (pow($exact, $root) == $base) { return $exact; }
if (pow($ceil, $root) == $base) { return $ceil; }
if (pow($floor, $root) == $base) { return $floor; }
// Default: no integer root
return FALSE;
}
It checks the exact, floor, and ceil values of the result to find which is the correct answer. If it's not one of the three then the number has no integer root and defaults to FALSE.
Here's an example of it in action:
var_dump(getLevel(10648, 3)); // 22^3 => float(22)
var_dump(getLevel(16807, 5)); // 7^5 => float(7)
var_dump(getLevel(1, 3)); // Should always return 1 => float(1)
var_dump(getLevel(1, 99)); // Should always return 1 => float(1)
var_dump(getLevel(7)); // Has no integer 3rd root => bool(false)
Of course, you can make the function return $floor; or return $ceil; as the default case, but that's up to you.
Related
How does one generate a random float between 0 and 1 in PHP?
I'm looking for the PHP's equivalent to Java's Math.random().
You may use the standard function: lcg_value().
Here's another function given on the rand() docs:
// auxiliary function
// returns random number with flat distribution from 0 to 1
function random_0_1()
{
return (float)rand() / (float)getrandmax();
}
Example from documentation :
function random_float ($min,$max) {
return ($min+lcg_value()*(abs($max-$min)));
}
rand(0,1000)/1000 returns:
0.348 0.716 0.251 0.459 0.893 0.867 0.058 0.955 0.644 0.246 0.292
or use a bigger number if you want more digits after decimal point
class SomeHelper
{
/**
* Generate random float number.
*
* #param float|int $min
* #param float|int $max
* #return float
*/
public static function rand($min = 0, $max = 1)
{
return ($min + ($max - $min) * (mt_rand() / mt_getrandmax()));
}
}
update:
forget this answer it doesnt work wit php -v > 5.3
What about
floatVal('0.'.rand(1, 9));
?
this works perfect for me, and it´s not only for 0 - 1 for example between 1.0 - 15.0
floatVal(rand(1, 15).'.'.rand(1, 9));
function mt_rand_float($min, $max, $countZero = '0') {
$countZero = +('1'.$countZero);
$min = floor($min*$countZero);
$max = floor($max*$countZero);
$rand = mt_rand($min, $max) / $countZero;
return $rand;
}
example:
echo mt_rand_float(0, 1);
result: 0.2
echo mt_rand_float(3.2, 3.23, '000');
result: 3.219
echo mt_rand_float(1, 5, '00');
result: 4.52
echo mt_rand_float(0.56789, 1, '00');
result: 0.69
$random_number = rand(1,10).".".rand(1,9);
function frand($min, $max, $decimals = 0) {
$scale = pow(10, $decimals);
return mt_rand($min * $scale, $max * $scale) / $scale;
}
echo "frand(0, 10, 2) = " . frand(0, 10, 2) . "\n";
This question asks for a value from 0 to 1. For most mathematical purposes this is usually invalid albeit to the smallest possible degree. The standard distribution by convention is 0 >= N < 1. You should consider if you really want something inclusive of 1.
Many things that do this absent minded have a one in a couple billion result of an anomalous result. This becomes obvious if you think about performing the operation backwards.
(int)(random_float() * 10) would return a value from 0 to 9 with an equal chance of each value. If in one in a billion times it can return 1 then very rarely it will return 10 instead.
Some people would fix this after the fact (to decide that 10 should be 9). Multiplying it by 2 should give around a ~50% chance of 0 or 1 but will also have a ~0.000000000465% chance of returning a 2 like in Bender's dream.
Saying 0 to 1 as a float might be a bit like mistakenly saying 0 to 10 instead of 0 to 9 as ints when you want ten values starting at zero. In this case because of the broad range of possible float values then it's more like accidentally saying 0 to 1000000000 instead of 0 to 999999999.
With 64bit it's exceedingly rare to overflow but in this case some random functions are 32bit internally so it's not no implausible for that one in two and a half billion chance to occur.
The standard solutions would instead want to be like this:
mt_rand() / (getrandmax() + 1)
There can also be small usually insignificant differences in distribution, for example between 0 to 9 then you might find 0 is slightly more likely than 9 due to precision but this will typically be in the billionth or so and is not as severe as the above issue because the above issue can produce an invalid unexpected out of bounds figure for a calculation that would otherwise be flawless.
Java's Math.random will also never produce a value of 1. Some of this comes from that it is a mouthful to explain specifically what it does. It returns a value from 0 to less than one. It's Zeno's arrow, it never reaches 1. This isn't something someone would conventionally say. Instead people tend to say between 0 and 1 or from 0 to 1 but those are false.
This is somewhat a source of amusement in bug reports. For example, any PHP code using lcg_value without consideration for this may glitch approximately one in a couple billion times if it holds true to its documentation but that makes it painfully difficult to faithfully reproduce.
This kind of off by one error is one of the common sources of "Just turn it off and on again." issues typically encountered in embedded devices.
Solution for PHP 7. Generates random number in [0,1). i.e. includes 0 and excludes 1.
function random_float() {
return random_int(0, 2**53-1) / (2**53);
}
Thanks to Nommyde in the comments for pointing out my bug.
>>> number_format((2**53-1)/2**53,100)
=> "0.9999999999999998889776975374843459576368331909179687500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
>>> number_format((2**53)/(2**53+1),100)
=> "1.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
Most answers are using mt_rand. However, mt_getrandmax() usually returns only 2147483647. That means you only have 31 bits of information, while a double has a mantissa with 52 bits, which means there is a density of at least 2^53 for the numbers between 0 and 1.
This more complicated approach will get you a finer distribution:
function rand_754_01() {
// Generate 64 random bits (8 bytes)
$entropy = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(8);
// Create a string of 12 '0' bits and 52 '1' bits.
$x = 0x000FFFFFFFFFFFFF;
$first12 = pack("Q", $x);
// Set the first 12 bits to 0 in the random string.
$y = $entropy & $first12;
// Now set the first 12 bits to be 0[exponent], where exponent is randomly chosen between 1 and 1022.
// Here $e has a probability of 0.5 to be 1022, 0.25 to be 1021, etc.
$e = 1022;
while($e > 1) {
if(mt_rand(0,1) == 0) {
break;
} else {
--$e;
}
}
// Pack the exponent properly (add four '0' bits behind it and 49 more in front)
$z = "\0\0\0\0\0\0" . pack("S", $e << 4);
// Now convert to a double.
return unpack("d", $y | $z)[1];
}
Please note that the above code only works on 64-bit machines with a Litte-Endian byte order and Intel-style IEEE754 representation. (x64-compatible computers will have this). Unfortunately PHP does not allow bit-shifting past int32-sized boundaries, so you have to write a separate function for Big-Endian.
You should replace this line:
$z = "\0\0\0\0\0\0" . pack("S", $e << 4);
with its big-endian counterpart:
$z = pack("S", $e << 4) . "\0\0\0\0\0\0";
The difference is only notable when the function is called a large amount of times: 10^9 or more.
Testing if this works
It should be obvious that the mantissa follows a nice uniform distribution approximation, but it's less obvious that a sum of a large amount of such distributions (each with cumulatively halved chance and amplitude) is uniform.
Running:
function randomNumbers() {
$f = 0.0;
for($i = 0; $i < 1000000; ++$i) {
$f += \math::rand_754_01();
}
echo $f / 1000000;
}
Produces an output of 0.49999928273099 (or a similar number close to 0.5).
I found the answer on PHP.net
<?php
function randomFloat($min = 0, $max = 1) {
return $min + mt_rand() / mt_getrandmax() * ($max - $min);
}
var_dump(randomFloat());
var_dump(randomFloat(2, 20));
?>
float(0.91601131712832)
float(16.511210331931)
So you could do
randomFloat(0,1);
or simple
mt_rand() / mt_getrandmax() * 1;
what about:
echo (float)('0.' . rand(0,99999));
would probably work fine... hope it helps you.
I have let's say 0.00001004 or 0.00001
I am trying to choose and how decimal places to prune off and turn both of those so it returns 0.00001 both times.
I do not want it to round the number in anyway.
I've tried this but it is not giving me the desired results.
function decimalFix($number, $decimals) {
return floatval(bcdiv($number, 1, $decimals));
}
echo decimalFix(0.00001, 5); // returns "0"
Does anyone know what I can do? I can't have any rounding involved and I need it to return it as a float and not a string.
I don't know why you're so committed to losing precision, but here's some math to make that particular mistake in the way you wish to make it.
$derp = 0.000016;
function derp_round($derp, $len) {
$mul = pow(10, $len);
return floor($derp * $mul)/$mul;
}
var_dump(
$derp,
number_format($derp, 5),
sprintf("%.5f", $derp),
sprintf("%.5f", round($derp, 5, PHP_ROUND_HALF_DOWN)),
sprintf("%.5f", derp_round($derp, 5))
);
Output:
float(1.6E-5)
string(7) "0.00002"
string(7) "0.00002"
string(7) "0.00002"
string(7) "0.00001"
There's a function that does exactly this in the first comment on the PHP documentation for floor(). I'll copy it here in case it disappears from there, but credits go to seppili_:
function floordec($zahl,$decimals=2){
return floor($zahl*pow(10,$decimals))/pow(10,$decimals);
}
Use it like:
$number = 0.00001004;
$rounded = floordec($number, 5);
var_dump($rounded); // float(0.00001)
Edit: There's a comment further down on that page by Leon Grdic that warns about float precision and offers this updated version:
function floordec($value,$decimals=2){
return floor($value*pow(10,$decimals)+0.5)/pow(10,$decimals);
}
Usage is the same.
I need to slightly scramble real numbers in a report. The values are typically between 0 and 1000, with most being small numbers containing decimals with a scale of 2.
Some examples:
32.1
0.10
0.02
0.01
I put together this simple function to scramble the values slightly:
function tickle_int($v)
{
$tickled = $v + (mt_rand(-40, 40) / 100);
if ($tickled==$v)
{
$tickled = tickle_int($v);
}
return $tickled;
}
But I'm finding that the returned value is often negative. If I change the low value of mt_rand to 0, I only get scrambled values that are greater than the original value, reducing randomness.
How could this function be modified to only return a non-negative value that is randomly above or below the passed input?
Edit to add I need to avoid 0. The scrambled value needs to be non-negative and not zero. The kicker is passing .01. I need a way of randomzing that to values such as .009, .02, .011, ect -- while continuing to significantly randomize larger values.
Limit it:
$tickled = $v + ( mt_rand( $v*(-1), 40) / 100 );
try this,
function tickle_int($v)
{
$random = mt_rand(40, 80);
$tickled = $v + (($random - 40) / 100);
if ($tickled==$v)
{
$tickled = tickle_int($v);
}
print_r($tickled);
}
You have to move -40 outside of mt_rand:
function tickle_int($v, $w)
{
$tickled = $v + (mt_rand(0, 2 * $w) - ($v >= $w? $w : $v)) / 100;
if ($tickled==$v)
{
$tickled = tickle_int($v);
}
return $tickled;
}
tickle_int(0.5, 40);
If you don't care too much about the random distribution, then you could simply do
if ($tickled < 0)
{
$tickled = 0;
}
return $tickled;
Otherwise, you need to modify the min parameter passed to mt_rand to be dependent on $v.
I wonder if is there a good way to get the number of digits in right/left side of a decimal number PHP. For example:
12345.789 -> RIGHT SIDE LENGTH IS 3 / LEFT SIDE LENGTH IS 5
I know it is readily attainable by helping string functions and exploding the number. I mean is there a mathematically or programmatically way to perform it better than string manipulations.
Your answers would be greatly appreciated.
Update
The best solution for left side till now was:
$left = floor(log10($x))+1;
but still no sufficient for right side.
Still waiting ...
To get the digits on the left side you can do this:
$left = floor(log10($x))+1;
This uses the base 10 logarithm to get the number of digits.
The right side is harder. A simple approach would look like this, but due to floating point numbers, it would often fail:
$decimal = $x - floor($x);
$right = 0;
while (floor($decimal) != $decimal) {
$right++;
$decimal *= 10; //will bring in floating point 'noise' over time
}
This will loop through multiplying by 10 until there are no digits past the decimal. That is tested with floor($decimal) != $decimal.
However, as Ali points out, giving it the number 155.11 (a hard to represent digit in binary) results in a answer of 14. This is because as the number is stored as something like 155.11000000000001 with the 32 bits of floating precision we have.
So instead, a more robust solution is needed. (PoPoFibo's solutions above is particularly elegant, and uses PHPs inherit float comparison functions well).
The fact is, we can never distinguish between input of 155.11 and 155.11000000000001. We will never know which number was originally given. They will both be represented the same. However, if we define the number of zeroes that we can see in a row before we just decide the decimal is 'done' than we can come up with a solution:
$x = 155.11; //the number we are testing
$LIMIT = 10; //number of zeroes in a row until we say 'enough'
$right = 0; //number of digits we've checked
$empty = 0; //number of zeroes we've seen in a row
while (floor($x) != $x) {
$right++;
$base = floor($x); //so we can see what the next digit is;
$x *= 10;
$base *= 10;
$digit = floor($x) - $base; //the digit we are dealing with
if ($digit == 0) {
$empty += 1;
if ($empty == $LIMIT) {
$right -= $empty; //don't count all those zeroes
break; // exit the loop, we're done
}
} else {
$zeros = 0;
}
}
This should find the solution given the reasonable assumption that 10 zeroes in a row means any other digits just don't matter.
However, I still like PopoFibo's solution better, as without any multiplication, PHPs default comparison functions effectively do the same thing, without the messiness.
I am lost on PHP semantics big time but I guess the following would serve your purpose without the String usage (that is at least how I would do in Java but hopefully cleaner):
Working code here: http://ideone.com/7BnsR3
Non-string solution (only Math)
Left side is resolved hence taking the cue from your question update:
$value = 12343525.34541;
$left = floor(log10($value))+1;
echo($left);
$num = floatval($value);
$right = 0;
while($num != round($num, $right)) {
$right++;
}
echo($right);
Prints
85
8 for the LHS and 5 for the RHS.
Since I'm taking a floatval that would make 155.0 as 0 RHS which I think is valid and can be resolved by String functions.
php > $num = 12345.789;
php > $left = strlen(floor($num));
php > $right = strlen($num - floor($num));
php > echo "$left / $right\n";
5 / 16 <--- 16 digits, huh?
php > $parts = explode('.', $num);
php > var_dump($parts);
array(2) {
[0]=>
string(5) "12345"
[1]=>
string(3) "789"
As you can see, floats aren't the easiest to deal with... Doing it "mathematically" leads to bad results. Doing it by strings works, but makes you feel dirty.
$number = 12345.789;
list($whole, $fraction) = sscanf($number, "%d.%d");
This will always work, even if $number is an integer and you’ll get two real integers returned. Length is best done with strlen() even for integer values. The proposed log10() approach won't work for 10, 100, 1000, … as you might expect.
// 5 - 3
echo strlen($whole) , " - " , strlen($fraction);
If you really, really want to get the length without calling any string function here you go. But it's totally not efficient at all compared to strlen().
/**
* Get integer length.
*
* #param integer $integer
* The integer to count.
* #param boolean $count_zero [optional]
* Whether 0 is to be counted or not, defaults to FALSE.
* #return integer
* The integer's length.
*/
function get_int_length($integer, $count_zero = false) {
// 0 would be 1 in string mode! Highly depends on use case.
if ($count_zero === false && $integer === 0) {
return 0;
}
return floor(log10(abs($integer))) + 1;
}
// 5 - 3
echo get_int_length($whole) , " - " , get_int_length($fraction);
The above will correctly count the result of 1 / 3, but be aware that the precision is important.
$number = 1 / 3;
// Above code outputs
// string : 1 - 10
// math : 0 - 10
$number = bcdiv(1, 3);
// Above code outputs
// string : 1 - 0 <-- oops
// math : 0 - INF <-- 8-)
No problem there.
I would like to apply a simple logic.
<?php
$num=12345.789;
$num_str="".$num; // Converting number to string
$array=explode('.',$num_str); //Explode number (String) with .
echo "Left side length : ".intval(strlen($array[0])); // $array[0] contains left hand side then check the string length
echo "<br>";
if(sizeof($array)>1)
{
echo "Left side length : ".intval(strlen($array[1]));// $array[1] contains left hand check the string length side
}
?>
How does one generate a random float between 0 and 1 in PHP?
I'm looking for the PHP's equivalent to Java's Math.random().
You may use the standard function: lcg_value().
Here's another function given on the rand() docs:
// auxiliary function
// returns random number with flat distribution from 0 to 1
function random_0_1()
{
return (float)rand() / (float)getrandmax();
}
Example from documentation :
function random_float ($min,$max) {
return ($min+lcg_value()*(abs($max-$min)));
}
rand(0,1000)/1000 returns:
0.348 0.716 0.251 0.459 0.893 0.867 0.058 0.955 0.644 0.246 0.292
or use a bigger number if you want more digits after decimal point
class SomeHelper
{
/**
* Generate random float number.
*
* #param float|int $min
* #param float|int $max
* #return float
*/
public static function rand($min = 0, $max = 1)
{
return ($min + ($max - $min) * (mt_rand() / mt_getrandmax()));
}
}
update:
forget this answer it doesnt work wit php -v > 5.3
What about
floatVal('0.'.rand(1, 9));
?
this works perfect for me, and it´s not only for 0 - 1 for example between 1.0 - 15.0
floatVal(rand(1, 15).'.'.rand(1, 9));
function mt_rand_float($min, $max, $countZero = '0') {
$countZero = +('1'.$countZero);
$min = floor($min*$countZero);
$max = floor($max*$countZero);
$rand = mt_rand($min, $max) / $countZero;
return $rand;
}
example:
echo mt_rand_float(0, 1);
result: 0.2
echo mt_rand_float(3.2, 3.23, '000');
result: 3.219
echo mt_rand_float(1, 5, '00');
result: 4.52
echo mt_rand_float(0.56789, 1, '00');
result: 0.69
$random_number = rand(1,10).".".rand(1,9);
function frand($min, $max, $decimals = 0) {
$scale = pow(10, $decimals);
return mt_rand($min * $scale, $max * $scale) / $scale;
}
echo "frand(0, 10, 2) = " . frand(0, 10, 2) . "\n";
This question asks for a value from 0 to 1. For most mathematical purposes this is usually invalid albeit to the smallest possible degree. The standard distribution by convention is 0 >= N < 1. You should consider if you really want something inclusive of 1.
Many things that do this absent minded have a one in a couple billion result of an anomalous result. This becomes obvious if you think about performing the operation backwards.
(int)(random_float() * 10) would return a value from 0 to 9 with an equal chance of each value. If in one in a billion times it can return 1 then very rarely it will return 10 instead.
Some people would fix this after the fact (to decide that 10 should be 9). Multiplying it by 2 should give around a ~50% chance of 0 or 1 but will also have a ~0.000000000465% chance of returning a 2 like in Bender's dream.
Saying 0 to 1 as a float might be a bit like mistakenly saying 0 to 10 instead of 0 to 9 as ints when you want ten values starting at zero. In this case because of the broad range of possible float values then it's more like accidentally saying 0 to 1000000000 instead of 0 to 999999999.
With 64bit it's exceedingly rare to overflow but in this case some random functions are 32bit internally so it's not no implausible for that one in two and a half billion chance to occur.
The standard solutions would instead want to be like this:
mt_rand() / (getrandmax() + 1)
There can also be small usually insignificant differences in distribution, for example between 0 to 9 then you might find 0 is slightly more likely than 9 due to precision but this will typically be in the billionth or so and is not as severe as the above issue because the above issue can produce an invalid unexpected out of bounds figure for a calculation that would otherwise be flawless.
Java's Math.random will also never produce a value of 1. Some of this comes from that it is a mouthful to explain specifically what it does. It returns a value from 0 to less than one. It's Zeno's arrow, it never reaches 1. This isn't something someone would conventionally say. Instead people tend to say between 0 and 1 or from 0 to 1 but those are false.
This is somewhat a source of amusement in bug reports. For example, any PHP code using lcg_value without consideration for this may glitch approximately one in a couple billion times if it holds true to its documentation but that makes it painfully difficult to faithfully reproduce.
This kind of off by one error is one of the common sources of "Just turn it off and on again." issues typically encountered in embedded devices.
Solution for PHP 7. Generates random number in [0,1). i.e. includes 0 and excludes 1.
function random_float() {
return random_int(0, 2**53-1) / (2**53);
}
Thanks to Nommyde in the comments for pointing out my bug.
>>> number_format((2**53-1)/2**53,100)
=> "0.9999999999999998889776975374843459576368331909179687500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
>>> number_format((2**53)/(2**53+1),100)
=> "1.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
Most answers are using mt_rand. However, mt_getrandmax() usually returns only 2147483647. That means you only have 31 bits of information, while a double has a mantissa with 52 bits, which means there is a density of at least 2^53 for the numbers between 0 and 1.
This more complicated approach will get you a finer distribution:
function rand_754_01() {
// Generate 64 random bits (8 bytes)
$entropy = openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(8);
// Create a string of 12 '0' bits and 52 '1' bits.
$x = 0x000FFFFFFFFFFFFF;
$first12 = pack("Q", $x);
// Set the first 12 bits to 0 in the random string.
$y = $entropy & $first12;
// Now set the first 12 bits to be 0[exponent], where exponent is randomly chosen between 1 and 1022.
// Here $e has a probability of 0.5 to be 1022, 0.25 to be 1021, etc.
$e = 1022;
while($e > 1) {
if(mt_rand(0,1) == 0) {
break;
} else {
--$e;
}
}
// Pack the exponent properly (add four '0' bits behind it and 49 more in front)
$z = "\0\0\0\0\0\0" . pack("S", $e << 4);
// Now convert to a double.
return unpack("d", $y | $z)[1];
}
Please note that the above code only works on 64-bit machines with a Litte-Endian byte order and Intel-style IEEE754 representation. (x64-compatible computers will have this). Unfortunately PHP does not allow bit-shifting past int32-sized boundaries, so you have to write a separate function for Big-Endian.
You should replace this line:
$z = "\0\0\0\0\0\0" . pack("S", $e << 4);
with its big-endian counterpart:
$z = pack("S", $e << 4) . "\0\0\0\0\0\0";
The difference is only notable when the function is called a large amount of times: 10^9 or more.
Testing if this works
It should be obvious that the mantissa follows a nice uniform distribution approximation, but it's less obvious that a sum of a large amount of such distributions (each with cumulatively halved chance and amplitude) is uniform.
Running:
function randomNumbers() {
$f = 0.0;
for($i = 0; $i < 1000000; ++$i) {
$f += \math::rand_754_01();
}
echo $f / 1000000;
}
Produces an output of 0.49999928273099 (or a similar number close to 0.5).
I found the answer on PHP.net
<?php
function randomFloat($min = 0, $max = 1) {
return $min + mt_rand() / mt_getrandmax() * ($max - $min);
}
var_dump(randomFloat());
var_dump(randomFloat(2, 20));
?>
float(0.91601131712832)
float(16.511210331931)
So you could do
randomFloat(0,1);
or simple
mt_rand() / mt_getrandmax() * 1;
what about:
echo (float)('0.' . rand(0,99999));
would probably work fine... hope it helps you.