<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >rand</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.44"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PHP Manual" HREF="manual.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Mathematical functions" HREF="ref.math.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="pow" HREF="function.pow.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="round" HREF="function.round.html"></HEAD ><BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >PHP Manual</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="function.pow.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="function.round.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="function.rand" >rand</A ></H1 ><DIV CLASS="refnamediv" ><A NAME="AEN15972" ></A >rand -- Generate a random value</DIV ><DIV CLASS="refsect1" ><A NAME="AEN15975" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 ><DIV CLASS="funcsynopsis" ><P ></P ><CODE CLASS="FUNCDEF" >int rand</CODE >( [<SPAN CLASS="optional" >int min</SPAN >] , [<SPAN CLASS="optional" >int max</SPAN >] );<P ></P ></DIV ><P > If called without the optional <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >min</I ></TT >, <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >max</I ></TT > arguments <B CLASS="function" >rand()</B > returns a pseudo-random value between 0 and <TT CLASS="constant" >RAND_MAX</TT >. If you want a random number between 5 and 15 (inclusive), for example, use <TT CLASS="literal" >rand (5, 15)</TT >. </P ><P > Remember to seed the random number generator before use with <A HREF="function.srand.html" ><B CLASS="function" >srand()</B ></A >. </P ><DIV CLASS="note" ><BLOCKQUOTE CLASS="note" ><P ><B >Note: </B > In versions before 3.0.7 the meaning of <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >max</I ></TT > was <TT CLASS="parameter" ><I >range</I ></TT >. To get the same results in these versions the short example should be <TT CLASS="literal" >rand (5, 11)</TT > to get a random number between 5 und 15. </P ></BLOCKQUOTE ></DIV ><P > See also <A HREF="function.srand.html" ><B CLASS="function" >srand()</B ></A >, <A HREF="function.getrandmax.html" ><B CLASS="function" >getrandmax()</B ></A >, <A HREF="function.mt-rand.html" ><B CLASS="function" >mt_rand()</B ></A >, <A HREF="function.mt-srand.html" ><B CLASS="function" >mt_srand()</B ></A > and <A HREF="function.mt-getrandmax.html" ><B CLASS="function" >mt_getrandmax()</B ></A >. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="function.pow.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="manual.html" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="function.round.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >pow</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="ref.math.html" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >round</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >