The proper end index is int rand @array, not int rand $#array. For example, for an array of 7 items, rand @array would return a number that is equal to or higher than 0 or, and below 7. That means that the largest number you can ever get would be like 6.9999999999.... int truncates this to an integer towards zero (AKA "rounding down"), so the largest integer you can ever get this way, is 6.
What's more, rand is uniformely distributed, which means that the chance of getting an outcome within any subrange is proportional to the size of that subrange, thus, the difference between upper and lower limit of the subrange — the lower edge is included in this range, the upper edge is not. Therefore, after int, the chance of getting any integer in the range is the same for all, as the size of each subrange resulting in one particular integer value is 1 — including the last one.
-
Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
-
Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big>
<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
<dl> <dt> <em> <font>
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4>
<h5> <h6> <hr /> <i>
<li> <nbsp> <ol> <p>
<small> <strike> <strong>
<sub> <sup> <table>
<td> <th> <tr> <tt>
<u> <ul>
-
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
-
Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
|