CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javarandom
personMMIV
personMMIV

Reputation: 43

Random number generator with range and higher probability for bigger numbers in java

I want to make a method in java where I can input the maximum and minimum numbers and it will give me a random number, but with a higher chance of a bigger number than a smaller one. How would I do this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1374

Answers (1)

Peter Lawrey
Peter Lawrey

Reputation: 533492

There is lots of ways to do this depending on what you mean by higher. You can skew your distribution with a function.

int num = (int) (func(Math.random()) * (max - min)) + min;

Your func could be Math.sqrt or Math.pow(x, n) where n < 1 to favour higher numbers.

I would like it to be 10% more likely to have an answer over ten.

If this is your requirement, you actually have two distributions.

 private static final Random rand = new Random();
 public static int randBetween(int min, int max) {
       return rand.nextInt(max - min + 1) + min;
 }


 int next = rand.nextInt(100) < 10 ? // a 10% chance
            randBetween(10, max) : // random of at least 10
            randBetween(min, max); // otherwise any number.

Upvotes: 1

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