Random number between 1 and 28?

[+Random Terrain]

I need to change my web site over to the new look and work on my version of the bB help page some more, but I need to try something with bB before I forget about it. For this thing I'm trying, I require a random number between 1 and 28. That's easy with other BASIC-type languages, but what is the best way with bB?

 

Thanks.

[+batari]

I need to change my web site over to the new look and work on my version of the bB help page some more, but I need to try something with bB before I forget about it. For this thing I'm trying, I require a random number between 1 and 28. That's easy with other BASIC-type languages, but what is the best way with bB?

 

Thanks.

936890[/snapback]

There are definitely other ways, but what comes to my mind is this.

10 a=rand:if a>215 then 10
 a=a/8:a=a+1

Edited September 23, 2005 by batari

[+batari]

Oops, I made a mistake - the above will give a number from 1 to 27.

 

This should give you 1 to 28:

10 a=rand:if a>223 then 10
 a=a/8:a=a+1

[+Random Terrain]

Oops, I made a mistake - the above will give a number from 1 to 27.

 

This should give you 1 to 28:

10 a=rand:if a>223 then 10
 a=a/8:a=a+1

936947[/snapback]

Thanks. Would that give me a problem if a was 0 because of the division? Whether or not it's a problem with bB, would this work OK?

 

 a=rand : if a<9 || a>223 then a=223
 a=a/8 : a=a+1

Edited September 23, 2005 by Random Terrain

[+batari]

Oops, I made a mistake - the above will give a number from 1 to 27.

 

This should give you 1 to 28:

10 a=rand:if a>223 then 10
 a=a/8:a=a+1

936947[/snapback]

Thanks. Would that give me a problem if a was 0 because of the division? Whether or not it's a problem with bB, would this work OK?

Doing 0/8 is not a problem. Doing something like 8/0 will generate an error in most languages, but not bB. It traps division by zero and just returns zero.

 a=rand : if a<9 || a>223 then a=223
 a=a/8 : a=a+1

936970[/snapback]

The above would produce a number from 2 to 28, and would strongly favor 28 (which would occur roughly 20% of the time, as opposed to around 3% for the other digits.)

[+Random Terrain]

Doing 0/8 is not a problem. Doing something like 8/0 will generate an error in most languages, but not bB.  It traps division by zero and just returns zero.

That's great news. That sounds like something to add to the help file.

[SeaGtGruff]

I need to change my web site over to the new look and work on my version of the bB help page some more, but I need to try something with bB before I forget about it. For this thing I'm trying, I require a random number between 1 and 28. That's easy with other BASIC-type languages, but what is the best way with bB?

 

Thanks.

936890[/snapback]

Fred already gave you a way to do it, but here's another idea:

 a=rand
reduce_a
 if a>28 then a=a-28:goto reduce_a

Michael Rideout