PHP: mt_rand - Manual

downloads | documentation | faq | getting help | mailing lists | reporting bugs | php.net sites | links | conferences | my php.net

search for in the

mt_srand mt_getrandmax

Last updated: Sat, 27 Jan 2007

view this page in

# mt_rand

(PHP 3 >= 3.0.6, PHP 4, PHP 5)

mt_rand -- Generate a better random value

## Description

int mt_rand ( [int min, int max] )

Many random number generators of older libcs have dubious or unknown characteristics and are slow. By default, PHP uses the libc random number generator with the rand() function. The mt_rand() function is a drop-in replacement for this. It uses a random number generator with known characteristics using the Mersenne Twister, which will produce random numbers four times faster than what the average libc rand() provides.

If called without the optional `min`, `max` arguments mt_rand() returns a pseudo-random value between 0 and `RAND_MAX`. If you want a random number between 5 and 15 (inclusive), for example, use `mt_rand (5, 15)`.

Пример 1. mt_rand() example

`<?php echo mt_rand() . "\n"; echo mt_rand() . "\n"; echo mt_rand(5, 15); ?>`

Результатом выполнения данного примера будет что-то подобное:

    1604716014
    1478613278
    6

> Замечание: Начиная с PHP 4.2.0, больше нет необходимости инициализировать генератор случайных чисел функциями srand() или mt_srand(), поскольку теперь это происходит автоматически.

> Замечание: In versions before 3.0.7 the meaning of `max` was `range`. To get the same results in these versions the short example should be `mt_rand (5, 11)` to get a random number between 5 and 15.

See also: mt_srand(), mt_getrandmax(), and rand().

add a note User Contributed Notes
mt_rand
heavyraptor
14-Feb-2007 03:26
`since my mt_rand_n() function isn't too fast I created a faster and easier function:
<?php
function mt_rand_exclusive($min,$max,$ex) {
while (true) {
if (!in_array($rand = mt_rand($min,$max),(array)$ex))
return $rand;
}
}
?>
Have fun`
zolaar at nothanks dot com
07-Feb-2007 10:44
`a better (and likely faster) way to generate a random 6-digit hex string:
<?php
$num = mt_rand ( 0, 0xffffff ); // trust the library, love the library...
$output = sprintf ( "%06x" , $num ); // muchas smoochas to you, PHP!
return $output;
?>
The mt_rand function won't give you a number outside the bounds you asked for -- no need to and-off the top bits -- and the sprintf function has params for length-padding & hexidecimal output. It's likely faster because most of the work is being done by the wicked fast C functions that PHP sits on top of, though YMMV in that dept.`
heavyraptor
12-Dec-2006 09:47
`If you need a random number but not the numbers in a specified array, you may use my function below:
<?php
function mt_rand_n($min,$max,$disallowed) {
// $a must be an array
if (!is_array($disallowed))
return false;
// Create an array with the numbers from $min to $max
// without the numbers in $disallowed.
// - range() to create an array with the numbers from $min to $max
// - array_diff() to create the allowed numbers
// - since array_diff() doesn't change the keys, we've to change them with
// array_values(), to get an normal order (0,1,2,3 ... )
$numbers = array_values(array_diff(range($min,$max),$disallowed));
// size of $numbers must be greater than 0
if (count($numbers) < 1)
return false;
// create random number and return it
return $numbers[mt_rand(0,count($numbers) - 1)];
}
// Example:
$min = 0;
$max = 10;
$disallowed = array(0,1,2,3,4,9,10); // the numbers 1,2,3,6,7, and 8 are disallowed
for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++)
var_dump(mt_rand_n($min,$max,$disallowed));
?>
I hope it helps someone ...
Btw. here's the "un-comment" function:
<?php
function mt_rand_n($min,$max,$disallowed) {
if (!is_array($disallowed)) return false;
$numbers = array_values(array_diff(range($min,$max),$disallowed));
if (count($numbers) < 1) return false;
return $numbers[mt_rand(0,count($numbers) - 1)];
}
?>
Have fun :)`
MagicalTux at ooKoo dot org
20-Nov-2006 07:34
`In answer to David and pHp_n00b, about generating a random 6 characters hexadecimal string...
Well, the easiest solution would be :
<?php
$rand = mt_rand(0x000000, 0xffffff); // generate a random number between 0 and 0xffffff
$rand = dechex($rand & 0xffffff); // make sure we're not over 0xffffff, which shouldn't happen anyway
$rand = str_pad($rand, 6, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT); // add zeroes in front of the generated string
echo $rand;
?>
Some examples of generated stuff :
8514d2
3188ae
028f3e
444397
1de508
071662
You can easily make a function from this code.`
Chris
10-Nov-2006 11:35
`>Running the output of Mersenne Twister through an unkeyed >secure hash is NOT a good way to make it secure, because it'll >still have a relatively small internal state which, if recovered, >would allow reproduction of the keystream. A better idea >would be to encrypt the output with a keyed encryption >algorithm - but if you were going to do that, you wouldn't >need a psuedorandom number generator at all, because a >counter would be just as good.
Not true. Mersenne Twister has an ENORMOUS amount of internal state - 4992 bits, bigger than practically any cipher's key length. The point of a secure random number generator is that you cannot predict future outputs based on past OUTPUTS, which is why a hash is applied. Clearly you can predict the future output of any pseudorandom number generator if you can acquire the internal state - a better algorithm will never solve this problem. If you use keyed encryption, recovering the key allows you to predict future outputs.`
David
06-Nov-2006 12:40
`Shouldn't it be a greater than (>) sign rather than a not equal (!=) sign? Because you're just checking to see if it is exactly six. So if it is 7 it, won't try to fix it. So wouldn't this be better?
<?
//....
if (strlen($random_hex) < "6") // sometimes it returns an only 5, or less, char Hex-Code,
hexcode(); // so the function has to be repeat
elseif (strlen($random_hex) > "6") // sometimes it returns 7 or more characters
//...I don't know how to make it do only six, but your code seems to only check to make sure it doesn't do less than 6; nothing to counter doing more than 6.... so here would be some code to reduce the size back to 6 if it went over.
else
echo $random_hex; // returns the Hex-Code
}
//...
?>`
pHp_n00b
26-Sep-2006 07:00
`<?php
// Generates a max."6 char" Hex-Code
function hexcode()
{
$min = hexdec("000000"); // result is 0 and sets the min-value for mt_rand
$max = hexdec("FFFFFF"); // result is 16777215 and sets the max-value for mt_rand
$random = mt_rand($min, $max); // creates a radom number between 0 and 16777215
$random_hex = dechex($random); // transforms the random number into a Hex-Code
// now the test, if the result has 6 chars
if (strlen($random_hex) != "6") // sometimes it returns an only 5, or less, char Hex-Code,
hexcode(); // so the function has to be repeat
else
echo $random_hex; // returns the Hex-Code
}
hexcode();
?>`
MagicalTux at ooKoo dot org
25-Aug-2006 05:44
`Since many people wrote little scripts to generate random sequences, I'll also give mine (which is slightly faster since it makes use of strlen only once, and uses strings instead of arrays) :
<?php
function code($nc, $a='abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789') {
$l=strlen($a)-1; $r='';
while($nc-->0) $r.=$a{mt_rand(0,$l)};
return $r;
}
?>`
arias at elleondeoro dot com
29-May-2006 02:03
`Be carefull with: $characters[mt_rand(0, count($characters))];
"If you want a random number between 5 and 15 (inclusive), for example, use mt_rand (5, 15)."
Array index are between 0 and n-1, but mt_rand generates a number between 0 and n!`
James
15-Apr-2006 11:02
`The Developers Resources article mentioned above should be removed as that site has be down for years. The same article by Gregory Boshoff is available at http://www.phpfive.net/article2.htm`
rollerce at gmail dot com
15-Feb-2006 05:38
`I know a bunch of you have posted little snippets for random number generation, but here's a nifty (in my opinion) little thing I just wrote to create a 10 digit code with hyphens in it. It also negates the use of 0, O, 1, and I, to avoid confusion. I am ALWAYS willing to accept input so if any of you has suggestions to streamline the code, please let me know.
<?php
function GetID($x){
$characters = array("A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G", "H", "J", "K", "L", "M", "N", "P", "Q", "R", "S", "T", "U", "V", "W", "X", "Y", "Z", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9");
shuffle($characters);
for (; strlen($ReqID)<$x;){
$ReqID .= $characters[mt_rand(0, count($characters))];
}
return $ReqID;
}
$ReqID .= GetID(3);
$ReqID .= "-";
$ReqID .= GetID(4);
$ReqID .= "-";
$ReqID .= GetID(3);
echo $ReqID
?>`
ripat at lumadis dot be
07-Nov-2005 08:38
`Yet another snippet to generate a password.
<?php
$acceptedChars = 'azertyuiopqsdfghjklmwxcvbnAZERTYUIOPQSDFGHJKLMWXCVBN0123456789';
$max = strlen($acceptedChars)-1;
$password = null;
for($i=0; $i < 8; $i++) {
$password .= $acceptedChars{mt_rand(0, $max)};
}
echo $password;
?>
I have tried several ways of doing it but this simple one seems to be the fastest.`
fahri at konse dot de
08-Oct-2005 09:12
`i did the following, to generate a few random-numbers out of a total amount of numbers, but to create different random-numbers and not double or tripple.
for example i use it to generate 10 random-pics out of 150, and do shurely generate not twice the same...
<?php
$total = 6; // available numbers (of pictures)
$randanzahl = 6; //number of random-number to generate out of $total
function checkifdouble($ran,$i) {
for($j=1; $j<$i; $j++) {
if($ran[$j]==$ran[$i]) {
$ergebnis="true";
break;
} //endif
else {
$ergebnis="false";
} //endelse
} //endfor
return $ergebnis;
}
for ($i=1; $i<=$randanzahl; $i++) {
$ran[$i] = mt_rand(1, $total);
if ($i>1) {
while(checkifdouble($ran,$i)=="true") {
$ran[$i] = mt_rand(1, $total);
$v=checkifdouble($ran,$i);
echo($v);
} //endif
}
echo($ran[$i]."<br>");
} //enfor
?>
this version is easily for debugging and adaption!
maybe there is a very shorter version...`
phil [underscore] ozil at hotmail dot com
07-Oct-2005 06:13
`Quit bothering yourselves.
All it takes to create a secure random-generated password is those three lines:
<?php
$pass = "";
// Generate a 8 char password
for ($i=0; $i<8; $i++)
$pass .= chr(mt_rand(35, 126));
?>
Note:
In this example, the character's ASCII values range from 35 to 126.
For character's ASCII codes please check:
http://www.keller.com/html-quickref/latin1.html`
frans-jan at van-steenbeek dot net
03-Oct-2005 07:18
`My try at generating a reasonably secure password:
<?php
function keygen() {
$tempstring =
"0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNO
PQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABC
DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!?@#$%&*[]{}();:,<>~+=-_
/|\\";
for($length = 0; $length < mt_rand(10, 15); $length++) {
$temp = str_shuffle($tempstring);
$char = mt_rand(0, strlen($temp));
$pass .= $temp[$char];
}
return $pass;
}
echo(keygen());
echo("\n");
?>
This generates a password of an undefined length (in this case, 10 to 15 chars) consisting of numbers, UPPERCASE letters lowercase letters and a set of signs. I have doubled the chance of number and letters to reduce the confusion with my users.`
sean at codeaholics dot com
22-Jul-2005 06:31
`You really shouldn't generate a number to determine the _type_ of the char, then the char itself. If security is an issue for you, and you want to maintain as much entropy as possible, you should use a function similar to the one below. Since this seems to be getting repeated over-and-over, I explained (beat into the ground?) the issue on http://www.codeaholics.com/randomCode.php
The code:
<?php
////
// Returns a random code of the specified length, containing characters that are
// equally likely to be any of the digits, uppercase letters, or lowercase letters.
//
// The default length of 10 provides 839299365868340224 (62^10) possible codes.
//
// NOTE: Do not call wt_srand(). It is handled automatically in PHP 4.2.0 and above
// and any additional calls are likely to DECREASE the randomness.
////
function randomCode($length=10){
$retVal = "";
while(strlen($retVal) < $length){
$nextChar = mt_rand(0, 61); // 10 digits + 26 uppercase + 26 lowercase = 62 chars
if(($nextChar >=10) && ($nextChar < 36)){ // uppercase letters
$nextChar -= 10; // bases the number at 0 instead of 10
$nextChar = chr($nextChar + 65); // ord('A') == 65
} else if($nextChar >= 36){ // lowercase letters
$nextChar -= 36; // bases the number at 0 instead of 36
$nextChar = chr($nextChar + 97); // ord('a') == 97
} else { // 0-9
$nextChar = chr($nextChar + 48); // ord('0') == 48
}
$retVal .= $nextChar;
}
return $retVal;
}
?>`
mina86 at nospam dot projektcode dot org
24-May-2005 05:00
`Re: solenoid at hotmail dot united dot kingdom
In theory method shown by selenoid can lead to infinite loop. The correct method would be:
<?php
$randomNumbers = array();
for ($i = 0; i<30; ++$i) $randomNumbers[] = $i;
shuffle($randomNumbers);
for ($i = 20; $i<30; ++$i) unset($randomNumbers[$i]);
$randomNumbers = array_values($randomNumbers);
?>
The last two lines may be in some cases removed.`
nowhere at where dot net
16-Apr-2005 02:46
`Allows characters 0-9, a-z
Weighted (and tested) ok.
<?php
function generate_string ($length = 20)
{
$nps = "";
for($i=0;$i<$length;$i++)
{
$nps .= chr( (mt_rand(1, 36) <= 26) ? mt_rand(97, 122) : mt_rand(48, 57 ));
}
return $nps;
}
?>`
mskala at ansuz dot sooke dot bc dot ca
23-Jan-2005 03:47
`Running the output of Mersenne Twister through an unkeyed secure hash is NOT a good way to make it secure, because it'll still have a relatively small internal state which, if recovered, would allow reproduction of the keystream. A better idea would be to encrypt the output with a keyed encryption algorithm - but if you were going to do that, you wouldn't need a psuedorandom number generator at all, because a counter would be just as good.`
timr at onlinehome dot de
12-Aug-2004 04:24
`The correct address of the inventor's FAQ is (http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/efaq.html). They state that Mersenne Twister may be used for cryptography if you do some post-processing:
"Mersenne Twister is not cryptographically secure. (MT is based on a linear recursion. Any pseudorandom number sequence generated by a linear recursion is insecure, since from sufficiently long subsequence of the outputs, one can predict the rest of the outputs.)
To make it secure, you need to use some Secure Hashing Algorithm with MT. For example, you may gather every eight words of outputs, and compress them into one word (thus the length of the output sequence is 1/8 of the original one)."`
11-Feb-2004 05:27
`Here is a example of a very small, compact, quite random-random string generator. It will make a string with uppercase & lowercase letters, with numbers. You simply need to set $len in the for() structure, and then the string will be in $r. It has been designed for size, while it's still quite fast. Mind the wrapping, it should be 1 line.
<?php
for($len=8,$r='';strlen($r)<$len;$r.=chr(!mt_rand(0,2)?
mt_rand(48,57):(!mt_rand(0,1)?mt_rand(65,90):mt_rand
(97,122))));
?>
Armond Carroll`
tmx at ntlworld dot com
06-Dec-2003 01:26
`When using this function, it doesn't matter which order the numbers go in.
mt_rand(16,5)
works just as well as
mt_rand(5,16)
Which can be useful if you are pulling values from a database, that could be negative or positive.
mtrand(0,$anyinteger)
Hope this helps someone`
daeken_9999 at yahoo dot com
08-Jul-2003 02:44
`This is a fixed version of the gaussrand() function defined in a note above.
<?php
function gaussrand()
{
static $V2, $V1, $S;
static $phase = 0;
if (phase == 0)
{
while ($S >= 1 || $S == 0)
{
$V1 = 2 * (rand() / getrandmax()) - 1;
$V2 = 2 * (rand() / getrandmax()) - 1;
$S = $V1 * $V1 + $V2 * $V2;
}
$X = $V1 * sqrt(-2 * log($S) / $S);
}
else
$X = $V2 * sqrt(-2 * log($S) / $S);
$phase = 1 - $phase;
return $X;
}
?>`
jsheets at shadonet dot com
04-Jun-2003 01:49
`The following function will create a random base64 encoded key, this is very useful for password reset schemes or anything where you want a random string. To compare the string either compare the base64 encoded value or base64_decode it and compare that.
I do not use md5 because md5 results in only 1-9 and a-f in the string or 32^16 possibilities, by using the extended ASCII table and shuffling the array I am able to get a minimum of 32^127 possibilities with a 32 character string, using a longer string will make your value harder to guess still. A lot of machiens will have 32^255 possibilities in a decoded string.
<?php
function MakeResetKey($min_length = 32, $max_length = 64)
{
$key = '';
// build range and shuffle range using ASCII table
for ($i=0; $i<=255; $i++) {
$range[] = chr($i);
}
// shuffle our range 3 times
for ($i=0; $i<=3; $i++) {
shuffle($range);
}
// loop for random number generation
for ($i = 0; $i < mt_rand($min_length, $max_length); $i++) {
$key .= $range[mt_rand(0, count($range))];
}
$return = base64_encode($key);
if (!empty($return)) {
return $return;
} else {
return 0;
}
}
?>`
demogracia at metropoliglobal dot com
02-Mar-2002 12:38
`<?php
//
// Generates a random string with the specified length
// Chars are chosen from the provided [optional] list
//
function simpleRandString($length=16, $list="0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"){
mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$newstring="";
if($length>0){
while(strlen($newstring)<$length){
$newstring.=$list[mt_rand(0, strlen($list)-1)];
}
}
return $newstring;
}
//
// Generates a random string with the specified length
// Includes: a-z, A-Z y 0-9
//
function randString($length=16) {
$newstring="";
if($length>0) {
while(strlen($newstring)<$length) {
$randnum = mt_rand(0,61);
if ($randnum < 10) {
$newstring.=chr($randnum+48);
} elseif ($randnum < 36) {
$newstring.=chr($randnum+55);
} else {
$newstring.=chr($randnum+61);
}
}
}
return $newstring;
}
?>`
amcclung at stetson dot edu
18-Apr-2001 01:27
`Here's an elegant way of generating a random float value within a certain range:
$range = $upperBound-$lowerBound;
$num = $lowerBound + $range * mt_rand(0, 32767)/32767;
You should now have a floating point number between your $lowerBound (i.e. 0.5) and $upperBound (0.75) values.`
mrdlinux at yahoo dot com
20-Jul-2000 10:02
`And for those who prefer scaling:
mt_rand() / RAND_MAX * (Max - Min) + Min;`
add a note
mt_srand mt_getrandmax

Last updated: Sat, 27 Jan 2007
show source | credits | stats | sitemap | contact | advertising | mirror sites
Copyright © 2001-2007 The PHP Group
All rights reserved.
This mirror generously provided by: Yahoo! Inc.
Last updated: Sat Mar 10 09:32:46 2007 PST