rand - retrieve the next pseudorandom number

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION

# NAME

rand - retrieve the next pseudorandom number

# SYNOPSIS

rand EXPR

rand

# DESCRIPTION

Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to `0` and less than the value of EXPR. (EXPR should be positive.) If EXPR is omitted, the value `1` is used. Currently EXPR with the value `0` is also special-cased as `1` - this has not been documented before perl 5.8.0 and is subject to change in future versions of perl. Automatically calls `srand` unless `srand` has already been called. See also `srand`.

Apply `int()` to the value returned by `rand()` if you want random integers instead of random fractional numbers. For example,

        int(rand(10))

returns a random integer between `0` and `9`, inclusive.

(Note: If your rand function consistently returns numbers that are too large or too small, then your version of Perl was probably compiled with the wrong number of RANDBITS.)

rand - retrieve the next pseudorandom number