From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2004-03-07T03:07:37+09:00
Subject: Re: random range

Charles Comstock wrote:
> Why doesn't rand take an integer range and then generate a random number 
> in between the two?
> 
> Example:
>     rand(5..10) -> a random number from 5 to 10 including 10
>     rand(5...10) -> a random number from 5 to 10 excluding 10
> 
> That or maybe add rand to range so it picks a random item out of the 
> range.  For that matter why doesn't Array/Hash have a method to return a 
> random element?
> That way [1,2,4].rand and (5..10).rand would work.

Charles,

We were talking about this in IRC. Maybe you were one of those? :)

Someone suggested allowing not just rand(Fixnum) and rand(Range)
but in general rand(Enumerable).

Someone else said: That's kind of "overloading" the meaning of rand.
Well, I can see that might not be appropriate.

I think if it were my decision, I'd do something like:

1. Let rand accept a (numeric) Range, since rand is already a numeric
    kind of thing.
2. Add pick to Enumerable to pick a random element. (See #3)
3. Add pick! also, to do a pick with deletion. (rand! is not an
    intuitive name)

Comments?

Hal