PHP Random numbers - php

Question

I would like to draw a random number from the interval 1,49 but I would like to add a number as an exception ( let's say 44 ) , I cannot use round(rand(1,49)) .So I decided to make an array of 49 numbers ( 1-49) , unset[$aray[44]] and apply array_rand
Now I want to draw a number from the interval [$left,49] , how can I do that using the same array that I used before ?The array now misses value 44.

Answer 1

The function pick takes an array as an argument with all the numbers you have already picked. It will then pick a number between the start and the end that IS NOT in that array. It will add this number into that array and return the number.
function pick(&$picked, $start, $end) {
sort($picked);
if($start > $end - count($picked)) {
return false;
}
$pick = rand($start, $end - count($picked));
foreach($picked as $p) {
if($pick >= $p) {
$pick += 1;
} else {
break;
}
}
$picked[] = $pick;
return $pick;
}
This function will efficiently get a random number that is not in the array AND WILL NEVER INFINITELY RECURSE!
To use this like you want:
$array = array(44); // you have picked 44 for example
$num = pick($array, 1, 49); // get a random number between 1 and 49 that is not in $array
// $num will be a number between 1 and 49 that is not in $arrays
How the function works
Say you are getting a number between 1 and 10. And you have picked two numbers (e.g. 2 and 6). This will pick a number between 1 and (10 minus 2) using rand: rand(1, 8).
It will then go through each number that has been picked and check if the number is bigger.
For Example:
If rand(1, 8) returns 2.
It looks at 2 (it is >= then 2 so it increments and becomes 3)
It looks at 6 (it is not >= then 6 so it exits the loop)
The result is: 3
If rand(1, 8) returns 3
It looks at 2 (it is >= then 2 so it increments and becomes 4)
It looks at 6 (it is not >= then 6 so it exits the loop)
The result is 4
If rand(1, 8) returns 6
It looks at 2 (it is >= then 2 so it increments and becomes 7)
It looks at 6 (it is >= then 6 so it increments and becomes 8)
The result is: 8
If rand(1, 8) returns 8
It looks at 2 (it is >= then 2 so it increments and becomes 9)
It looks at 6 (it is >= then 6 so it increments and becomes 10)
The result is: 10
Therefore a random number between 1 and 10 is returned and it will not be 2 or 6.
I implemented this a long time ago to randomly place mines in a 2-dimensional array (because I wanted random mines, but I wanted to guarantee the number of mines on the field to be a certain number)

Answer 2

Why not just check your exceptions:
function getRand($min, $max) {
$exceptions = array(44, 23);
do {
$rand = mt_rand($min, $max);
} while (in_array($rand, $exceptions));
return $rand;
}
Note that this could result in an infinite loop if you provide a min and max that force mt_rand to return an exception character. So if you call getRand(44,44);, while meaningless, will result in an infinite loop... (And you can avoid the infinite loop with a bit of logic in the function (checking that there is at least one non-exception value in the range $min to $max)...
The other option, would be to build the array with a loop:
function getRand($min, $max) {
$actualMin = min($min, $max);
$actualMax = max($min, $max);
$values = array();
$exceptions = array(44, 23);
for ($i = $actualMin; $i <= $actualMax; $i++) {
if (in_array($i, $exceptions)) {
continue;
}
$values[] = $i;
}
return $values[array_rand($values)];
}

Answer 3

The simplest solution would be to just search for a random number from min to max - number of exceptions. Then just add 1 to the result for each exception lower than the result.
function getRandom($min, $max)
{
$exceptions = array(23, 44); // Keep them sorted or you have to do sort() every time
$random = rand($min, $max - count($exceptions));
foreach ($exceptions as $ex)
{
if ($ex > $random) break;
++$random;
}
return $random;
}
Runtime should be O(1+n) with n being the number of exceptions lower than the result.