Generating Unique Random Numbers in Java

Question

I'm trying to get random numbers between 0 and 100. But I want them to be unique, not repeated in a sequence. For example if I got 5 numbers, they should be 82,12,53,64,32 and not 82,12,53,12,32 I used this, but it generates same numbers in a sequence.

Random rand = new Random();
selected = rand.nextInt(100);

Answer 1

I have made this like that.

    Random random = new Random();
    ArrayList<Integer> arrayList = new ArrayList<Integer>();

    while (arrayList.size() < 6) { // how many numbers u need - it will 6
        int a = random.nextInt(49)+1; // this will give numbers between 1 and 50.

        if (!arrayList.contains(a)) {
            arrayList.add(a);
        }
    }

Answer 2

• Add each number in the range sequentially in a list structure.
• Shuffle it.
• Take the first 'n'.

Here is a simple implementation. This will print 3 unique random numbers from the range 1-10.

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;

public class UniqueRandomNumbers {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        ArrayList<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
        for (int i=1; i<11; i++) {
            list.add(new Integer(i));
        }
        Collections.shuffle(list);
        for (int i=0; i<3; i++) {
            System.out.println(list.get(i));
        }
    }
}

---

The first part of the fix with the original approach, as Mark Byers pointed out in an answer now deleted, is to use only a single Random instance.

That is what is causing the numbers to be identical. A Random instance is seeded by the current time in milliseconds. For a particular seed value, the 'random' instance will return the exact same sequence of pseudo random numbers.

Answer 3

I have easy solution for this problem, With this we can easily generate n number of unique random numbers, Its just logic anyone can use it in any language.

for(int i=0;i<4;i++)
        {
            rn[i]= GenerateRandomNumber();
            for (int j=0;j<i;j++)
            {
                if (rn[i] == rn[j])
                {
                    i--;
                }
            }
        }

Answer 4

Choose n unique random numbers from 0 to m-1.

int[] uniqueRand(int n, int m){
    Random rand = new Random();
    int[] r = new int[n];
    int[] result = new int[n];
    for(int i = 0; i < n; i++){
        r[i] = rand.nextInt(m-i);
        result[i] = r[i];
        for(int j = i-1; j >= 0; j--){
            if(result[i] >= r[j])
                result[i]++;
        }
    }
    return result;
}

Imagine a list containing numbers from 0 to m-1. To choose the first number, we simply use rand.nextInt(m). Then remove the number from the list. Now there remains m-1 numbers, so we call rand.nextInt(m-1). The number we get represents the position in the list. If it is less than the first number, then it is the second number, since the part of list prior to the first number wasn't changed by the removal of the first number. If the position is greater than or equal to the first number, the second number is position+1. Do some further derivation, you can get this algorithm.

Answer 5

I feel like this method is worth mentioning.

   private static final Random RANDOM = new Random();    
   /**
     * Pick n numbers between 0 (inclusive) and k (inclusive)
     * While there are very deterministic ways to do this,
     * for large k and small n, this could be easier than creating
     * an large array and sorting, i.e. k = 10,000
     */
    public Set<Integer> pickRandom(int n, int k) {
        final Set<Integer> picked = new HashSet<>();
        while (picked.size() < n) {
            picked.add(RANDOM.nextInt(k + 1));
        }
        return picked;
    }

Answer 6

try this out

public class RandomValueGenerator {
    /**
     * 
     */
    private volatile List<Double> previousGenValues = new ArrayList<Double>();

    public void init() {
        previousGenValues.add(Double.valueOf(0));
    }

    public String getNextValue() {
        Random random = new Random();
        double nextValue=0;
        while(previousGenValues.contains(Double.valueOf(nextValue))) {
            nextValue = random.nextDouble();
        }
        previousGenValues.add(Double.valueOf(nextValue));
        return String.valueOf(nextValue);
    }
}