random numbers : Java Glossary

random numbers
Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. For, as has been pointed out several times, there is no such thing as a random number — there are only methods to produce random numbers, and a strict arithmetic procedure of course is not such a method.
~ John von Neumann (born: 1903-12-28 died: 1957-02-08 at age: 53)
There are two kinds of random numbers, pseudo-random numbers that can be rapidly generated from mathematical formulae, and true random numbers, generated from some random physical process such as radioactive decay. Pseudo-random numbers are useless for cryptography. You need true random numbers for that. You now probably want to follow the link to pseudo-random numbers.
Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. For, as has been pointed out several times, there is no such thing as a random number — there are only methods to produce random numbers, and a strict arithmetic procedure of course is not such a method.
~ John von Neumann (born: 1903-12-28 died: 1957-02-08 at age: 53)

Collections.shuffle will scramble the objects in an ArrayList.


CMP homejump to top You can get the freshest copy of this page from: or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/mindprod.com website mirror)
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/randomnumbers.html J:\mindprod\jgloss\randomnumbers.html
logo
Please email your , letters to the editor, errors, omissions, typos, formatting errors, ambiguities, unclear wording, broken/redirected link reports, suggestions to improve this page or comments to Roedy Green : feedback email. If you want your message, your name or email kept confidential, not considered for public posting, please explicitly specify that. Unless you state otherwise, I will treat your message as a letter to the editor that I may or may not publish in the feedback section. After that, it will be too late to retract it. If you disagree with something I said, please quote it and cite the web page where you found it, tell me why you think it is wrong, and, if possible, provide some supporting evidence. Threatening to kill me or spouting obscenities has yet to persuade me to change my mind.
mindprod.com IP:[65.110.21.43]
view BlogYour face IP:[38.107.179.213]
You are visitor number 24,590.