RE: [PHP] rand(), mt_rand(), and my inability to make either of t hem random.

this is a function that I wrote to solve this problem, but it is almost impossible to get a truly random number you can get somthing pretty close by seeding with somthing like the time function, using the seconds since epoch and this should be hard to duplicate. <?php function random_number($config, $lownum, $highnum){ $time = date(U); $seed = srand($time); $rand = rand($lownum, $highnum); echo "<FONT FACE=\"$fontstyle\" SIZE=\"$fontsize\" COLOR=\"$fontcolor\">$rand</FONT>"; $lownum = "1"; $highnum = "100"; random_number("config.inc.php", $lownum, $highnum); } ?> -----Original Message----- From: April [mailto:april@farstrider.org] Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 1:50 PM To: PHP General Subject: [PHP] rand(), mt_rand(), and my inability to make either of them random. I have this scriptlet: $items = 6; $randnum = rand(1,$items); echo $randnum . "<br><br>"; Always, no matter how many times I hit refresh, it'll always return the lowest possible value, in this case 1. If I have rand(4,$items), it returns four. So I tried mt_rand(), with this: $items = 6; $randnum = mt_rand(1,$items); echo $randnum . "<br><br>"; This always, without fail, returns the highest possible value. 6 in this case. I'm using Apache/4.0.3pl1 on Windows 2000, locally, just to develop. Could this be a cache type problem? Could the gods be conspiring to drive me steadily insane? April -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net