Storing the state of the random number generator

toma has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I would like to be to store the state of the random number generator. I would like to specify the seed value on the first run of the program, but then after that I want the random number generator to pick up where it left off. I want to store the last state of the random number generator in a file. The next time I run the program, I want it to read the file and put the random number generator back into its previous state.

Is this possible in Perl? I did this in once in C a long time ago, and now I want to do it again in perl. The linux (or BSD 4.3) initstate() and setstate() calls enable this capability in C.

It should work perfectly the first time! - toma

Comment on Storing the state of the random number generator

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Re: Storing the state of the random number generator by jlongino (Parson) on Oct 24, 2001 at 10:48 UTC
I believe you can simulate the behaviour by storing the original seed, and the number of times you called rand. A crude example (just so you get the idea): `use strict; my $savedseed = 1234567; srand $savedseed; my $savedct = 0; my $rnd; foreach (1..5) { $savedct = $_; $rnd = rand; print "$savedct: $rnd\n"; } print "\n"; srand $savedseed; foreach (1..$savedct) { $rnd = rand; print "$_: $rnd\n"; } print "\n"; print $savedct+1, ": ", rand, "\n";` [download] which produces: `1: 0.03509521484375 2: 0.139495849609375 3: 0.08056640625 4: 0.35931396484375 5: 0.123077392578125 1: 0.03509521484375 2: 0.139495849609375 3: 0.08056640625 4: 0.35931396484375 5: 0.123077392578125 6: 0.814605712890625` [download] HTH --Jim Update: Capitalizing on the fact that "srand $seed" will produce the same sequence of numbers as long as the same value for $seed is used. See srand and seed for more details.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Storing the state of the random number generator by Fletch (Bishop) on Oct 24, 2001 at 18:15 UTC
`initstate()` and `setstate()` have to do with the `random()` call, but perl may not be using `random()` so they'd be of no use to you. You can tell with: `perl -Vrandfunc`. For example, 5.6.1 compiled on RedHat 7.1 with the defaults is using `drand48()`, not `random()`	[reply]
Re: Storing the state of the random number generator by jeroenes (Priest) on Oct 24, 2001 at 10:13 UTC
It seems that there doesn't exist a state saver in perl. I searched CPAN for random, but nothing with a state saving function. If there does exist such a thing in gnu libs, I would suggest you just make an XS interface to it. Jeroen "We are not alone"(FZ)	[reply]