Cliff Random Function (The GNU Awk User’s Guide)
From Get docs
Gawk/docs/latest/Cliff-Random-Function
Next: Ordinal Functions, Previous: Round Function, Up: General Functions [Contents][Index]
10.2.4 The Cliff Random Number Generator
The Cliff random number generator is a very simple random number generator that “passes the noise sphere test for randomness by showing no structure.” It is easily programmed, in less than 10 lines of awk code:
# cliff_rand.awk --- generate Cliff random numbers
BEGIN { _cliff_seed = 0.1 }
function cliff_rand()
{
_cliff_seed = (100 * log(_cliff_seed)) % 1
if (_cliff_seed < 0)
_cliff_seed = - _cliff_seed
return _cliff_seed
}
This algorithm requires an initial “seed” of 0.1. Each new value uses the current seed as input for the calculation. If the built-in rand() function (see section Numeric Functions) isn’t random enough, you might try using this function instead.
