return truely random number?

Hi,

I tried Math::Random and Math::Random::MT, but none of them can generate
turely random number when I executed the following code in a short time
frame (twice in a second):

#!/usr/bin/perl

#use Math::Random;
use Math::Random::MT;

$gen = Math::Random::MT->new($seed); # OR... $gen =
Math::Random::MT->new(@seed);

print $gen->rand(3)."\n";

#$random = random_uniform();
#$gmt = gmtime();

#print "Random: " . $random . "-" . $gmt . "\n";

I m trying to generate a transaction code for a data base table using
the format of random-GMT

Another question is how can I generate a gmt time in the format 92783456
instead of "Thu Dec 23 15:02:08 2004"?

Thanks
Sam

sam wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I tried Math::Random and Math::Random::MT, but none of them can generate
> turely random number when I executed the following code in a short time
> frame (twice in a second):

I might note that *no* random number generator generates "truly random"
numbers, because you can't get true random numbers from a deterministic
procedure.  However, I assume your actual complaint is that you're not
getting back a suitable variety of pseudo-random numbers.
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;
>
> #use Math::Random;
> use Math::Random::MT;
>
> $gen = Math::Random::MT->new($seed); # OR... $gen =
> Math::Random::MT->new(@seed);

You never define a seed.  So you always create a
random generator with a seed of "0", so you always get
the same sequence of psuedo-random numbers back.
Warnings and strict would've told you of this problem.
>
> print $gen->rand(3)."\n";
>
> #$random = random_uniform();
> #$gmt = gmtime();
>
> #print "Random: " . $random . "-" . $gmt . "\n";
>
> I m trying to generate a transaction code for a data base table using
> the format of random-GMT
>
> Another question is how can I generate a gmt time in the format 92783456
> instead of "Thu Dec 23 15:02:08 2004"?

perldoc -f time

--
Christopher Mattern

"Which one you figure tracked us?"
"The ugly one, sir."
"...Could you be more specific?"

Other posts point out the flaw in your code, but you might also want to
look at Math::TrulyRandom, which I like and use often.

Just found one, Crypt::Random depend on /dev/random device, it really
does give random number no matter how fast I generate the number...

Sam.

sam wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I tried Math::Random and Math::Random::MT, but none of them can generate
> turely random number when I executed the following code in a short time
> frame (twice in a second):
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl
>
> #use Math::Random;
> use Math::Random::MT;
>
> $gen = Math::Random::MT->new($seed); # OR... $gen =
> Math::Random::MT->new(@seed);
>
> print $gen->rand(3)."\n";
>
> #$random = random_uniform();
> #$gmt = gmtime();
>
> #print "Random: " . $random . "-" . $gmt . "\n";
>
> I m trying to generate a transaction code for a data base table using
> the format of random-GMT
>
> Another question is how can I generate a gmt time in the format 92783456
> instead of "Thu Dec 23 15:02:08 2004"?
>
> Thanks
> Sam

sam wrote:

> Another question is how can I generate a gmt time in the format 92783456
> instead of "Thu Dec 23 15:02:08 2004"?

Familiarize yourself with the arguments to gmtime and its return value.

$seconds_since_the_epoch = time;
@time_array = gmtime($seconds_since_the_epoch);
$time_scalar = gmtime($seconds_since_the_epoch);
print "time=$seconds_since_the_epoch time_array=(@time_array)
time_scalar='$time_scalar'\n";