Generating random 6 digit numbers

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Generating random 6 digit numbers

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Seggerman-675349 Hall of Fame Points: 3563 More actions · Answer 1

I found that generating random numbers is a task best done in code. Generating random numbers in SQL betrays a pattern, which makes repetitive executions predictable.

Michael Valentine Jones SSC Guru Points: 64818 More actions · Answer 2

Jeff Moden (12/29/2008)
The cast to VarBinary takes more time, Michael. That's the way I used to do it before Peter Larson and Matt Miller showed me this other way.

I actually had more concerns about how random the distribution of numbers would be in this case, since the largest possible integer is only 2,147 times 999,999, while the largest 7 byte BIGINT is 4,503,604,130 times larger than 999,999.

I don’t think it would be easy to test the randomness of the distribution without running massive Monte Carlo simulations to see if there was any pattern.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004307 More actions · Answer 3

Yeah... you're right on both counts... not enough coffee here... 😉

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

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