[radski]

Hello,

possibly a newbie question. I'm using the following method to get random numbers:

public int getRandomInt(int lowerlimit, int upperlimit){
Random generator = new Random();
generator.setSeed(System.currentTimeMillis());
// add +1 to include the upper limit
// this is bit shift to right and basicly does that there is no negative numbers so you can take mod
int nr = (generator.nextInt() >>> 1) % (upperlimit +1 - lowerlimit) + lowerlimit;
return nr;
}

However, if I call it more than once in the same run of the app I always get the same "random" number.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

R.

[patrickh]

That's because you are setting the seed to the current millis every time you call the function. So if you call the same function within the same ms, you get the same numbers.

The proper way is create the random generator only once and keep calling nextInt() only.

[genvej]

Originally Posted by patrickh

That's because you are setting the seed to the current millis every time you call the function. So if you call the same function within the same ms, you get the same numbers.

The proper way is create the random generator only once and keep calling nextInt() only.

i almost second that... only that your first random will always show the same number regardless of what amount of ms used... however, calling the nextInt will initiate a proper random number