#49701 [Bgs]: rand always returns min value

ID: 49701 User updated by: applezinc at gmail dot com Reported By: applezinc at gmail dot com Status: Bogus Bug Type: Math related Operating System: slackware linux 12.2 PHP Version: 5.2.11 New Comment: No its not bogus. You told me to refer to the documentation, well here it is: " If you require a range larger than 32768, specifying min and max will allow you to create a range larger than this, or consider using mt_rand() instead." Your assumption that it is bogus is based upon what? that "int" is 16 bits? int is defined as whatever register size the microprocessor can handle and it varies. I understand exactly what the prior poster said. I've been an embedded software engineer for 15 years. However that's NOT what the documentation says. So one of them is wrong. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-09-29 12:41:52] jani@php.net Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-09-28 19:21:23] sjoerd@php.net Thank you for your bug report. The techical reason this works like this is as follows: rand() takes two integers. When you specify a number bigger than 2^31, it is cast to float. When it is passed to rand(), it is cast to an int. The number 4294967294 then becomes -2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2009-09-28 17:31:31] applezinc at gmail dot com Description: ------------ getrandmax is 2^31. if you put in a number for max greater than that (as the documentation says you can), the function always returns the min. mt_rand is the same. Reproduce code: --------------- echo rand(1,4294967294); echo "\n"; echo getrandmax(); echo "\n"; Expected result: ---------------- random number between 1 and 4294967294. Actual result: -------------- 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=49701&edit=1