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bioinformatics_guy 09-15-2008 06:38 AM
Making Random Variables
 
Im rerunning a shell script under different options (which at first I thought I could solely use as a unique identifier, but realised my process is stochastic by nature so even identical start variables will give slightly different results) and wanted to know what you prefer? I was trying to find a random number/ASCII generator or putting a time stamp on it. Which is better and what command would I use to get it?

bioinformatics_guy 09-15-2008 06:41 AM
I forgot to mention, I am using bash. Not sure if the command would be a coreutil or bash specific so I thought I should put that out there.

theYinYeti 09-15-2008 07:09 AM
Using bash, you can use the $RANDOM variable.
Quote:
RANDOM Each time this parameter is referenced, a random integer between
0 and 32767 is generated. The sequence of random numbers may be
initialized by assigning a value to RANDOM. If RANDOM is unset,
it loses its special properties, even if it is subsequently
reset.
Yves.


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