RANDOM Function

The RANDOM function returns a numeric value that is a pseudo-random number (one of a sequence of numbers generated by an algorithm so as to have an even distribution over a range of values and minimal correlation between successive values) from a rectangular distribution. The type of this function is numeric.

Usage

FUNCTION RANDOM [(argument-1)]

Parameters

  1. If argument-1 is specified, it must be zero or a positive integer. It is used as the seed value to generate a sequence of pseudo-random numbers.
  2. If a subsequent reference specifies argument-1, a new sequence of pseudo-random numbers is started.
  3. If the first reference to this function in the run unit does not specify argument-1, a seed value will be provided by the runtime.
  4. In each case, subsequent references without specifying argument-1 return the next number in the current sequence.

Returned Values

  1. The returned value is greater than or equal to zero and less than one.
  2. For a given seed value on a given implementation, the sequence of pseudo-random numbers will always be the same.

Example

   77  random_num  pic s9(4)v99.
...
   move function random() to random_num.