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Unique Random Numbers

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    #1

    Unique Random Numbers

    Say you have 50 records in a table with a field called RandNumber, After I have entered the information in the record, I then want to create a script that will assign a UNIQUE random number to each of the 50 records. I know how to use the Random function, but not sure what would be the easiest way to check to make sure the number is unique. I do not want duplicate numbers.

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Unique Random Numbers

    Base the random no on the date & time?
    Use field rule (unique) validation?

    Just popping off without thinking the issue through.
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

     [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com

    Comment

      #3
      RE: Unique Random Numbers

      A while back there was a lot of discussion of this. I have some of it archived so if you get stuck or have special needs, write back.

      For starters:
      toseconds(time())*Rand()

      though simple suffices for many situations. You would have to do a lot of runs before two of them commenced the same number of seconds after midnight.

      Bill
      Bill Hanigsberg

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Unique Random Numbers

        Here is what I am trying to do. I have been assigned the honor of rewriting a Soccer Referee program to assign refs to games. The current program is written with Access and it will assign the same refs together all the time. What I plan on doing is finding the refs that are available to do games on any given day. After I have compiled this info in a refsummary table, I then want to go back and assign a random number to the officials. Then INDEX on this number and no two officials (for the most part) should be assigned together in all the time.

        Is there a way to use the uniqueness field rule? What xbasic function would you use to detect that a number is NOT unique?

        Hope this helps!!!

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Unique Random Numbers

          Phillip,

          If you are doing this in a script it is simple. Just do a key_exist to make sure that the sequence# arrived at from a random number function ( make sure it's an indexed field ) you assign is unique. If not, generate the next random number, check again, and then assign it.

          What you should watch out for is this: Unless this has been changed, if you open Alpha and generate your first random number, it will have a certain value. If you completely close Alpha and reopen Alpha and generate the first random number, it will be the same as before. In other words, the random generator is not truly random because it starts at the same place when you start up Alpha. What I do is create a number from an algorythm based on the date and time, and loop thru this number generating random numbers x number of times. When the loop is finished, hopefully it should start at a unique random number every time.

          An app of mine has to arrive at randomly selected records, and it is watched very carefully and it seems to be doing that.

          John

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Unique Random Numbers

            The time*rand() is giving me the random numbers. However, everytime I would run the script the officials would still be in the same sequence as the last time that I ran the random number script. It will always increment up. If I index on the random number there will never be a change in the ref sequence. I want to get a different mix of refs everytime that the script is run.

            Comment

              #7
              RE: Unique Random Numbers

              Philip,

              I think this will work for you. Open the form and click the button. If you look at the script, you will see how I generated a random sequence and assigned them to the records. One of the big issues is creating a random "seed" number to start the sequence. If you start a random sequence with the same seed number each time you will get the same sequence.

              Jerry

              Comment

                #8
                RE: Unique Random Numbers

                Jerry,
                Looks very nice. I do the same with a little different logic. I think there may be a problem in yours if you've deleted a record, but not packed the file. The fetch_find might be looking for a record that was deleted.
                John

                Comment

                  #9
                  RE: Unique Random Numbers

                  Good point. Ok,pack it first or add .not.tbl.is_deleted() to if statement.

                  Jerry

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