CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netrandom
Adrian
Adrian

Reputation: 1036

How can I find out what the seed was when creating a Random object?

when you create a .net Random object with no parameter, you get, as the docs put it:

Initializes a new instance of the Random class, using a time-dependent default seed value.

On the other side, you can specify the seed.

System.Random rand1 = new System.Random();
System.Random rand2 = new System.Random(222);

For rand2 the seed is known. How can I find out the seed of rand1 in order to obtain the same result at a different point in time?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 73

Answers (1)

Hans Passant
Hans Passant

Reputation: 941873

The default constructor of the Random class uses Environment.TickCount as the seed. While you could technically use that property yourself to know the seed, it can't be 100.00% reliable since there is a very small chance that it changes between the two statements.

You'll have to do it like this instead so it is always safe:

int seed = Environment.TickCount;
System.Random rand1 = new System.Random(seed);

Upvotes: 6

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