NAME

Math::BigInt::Random -- arbitrary sized random integers

DESCRIPTION

    Random number generator for arbitrarily large integers. 
    Uses the Math::BigInt module to handle the generated values.

    This module exports a single function called random_bigint, which returns 
    a single random Math::BigInt number of the specified range or size.  

SYNOPSIS

  use Math::BigInt;
  use Math::BigInt::Random qw/ random_bigint /;
 
  print "random by max : ",  random_bigint( max => '10000000000000000000000000'), "\n",
    "random by max and min : ", 
    random_bigint( min => '7000000000000000000000000', max => '10000000000000000000000000'), "\n",
    "random by length (base 10): ",   
    random_bigint( length => 20 ), "\n",
    "random by length (base 16) :",
    random_bigint( length_hex => 1, length => 20)->as_hex, "\n";
    "random by length (base 2) :",
    random_bigint( length_bin => 1, length => 319)->as_bin, "\n";
    "random from random.org" :",
    random_bigint( max => '3333333333333333000000000000000000000000', 
      min => '3333333333333300000000000000000000000000', use_internet => 1);
    
    

FUNCTION ARGUMENTS

This module exports a single function called random_bigint, which returns a single random Math::BigInt of arbitrary size.

Parameters to the function are given in paired hash style:

  max => $max,   
    the maximum integer that can be returned.  Either the 'max' or the 'length' 
    parameter is mandatory. If both max and length are given, only the 'max' 
    parameter will be used. Note that the max must be >= 1.
  
  min => $min,   
    which specifies the minimum integer that can be returned.  

  length => $required_length,
    which specifies the number of digits (with most significant digit not 0).  
    Note that if max is specified, length will be ignored.  However, if max is 
    not specified, length is a required argument.
  
  length_hex => 1,
    which specifies that, if length is used, the length is that of the base 16 
    number, not the base 10 number which is the default for the length.

  length_bin => 1,
    which specifies that, if length is used, the length is that of the base 2 
    number, not the base 10 number which is the default for the length. Note 
    that, due to discarding half the possible random numbers due to random 
    generation of a most significant place digit of 0, this method is about 
    half as efficient as when an exact maximum and minimum are given instead.
    
  use_internet => 1,
     which specifies that the random.org website will be used for random 
     number generation.  Note this is NOT secure, since anyone monitoring
     the connnection might be able to read the numbers that are received.
     It is quite random, however.

Class Internal Methods and Functions

assemble_digits

bigint_rand

get_random_hex_digits

get_random_org_digits

random_bigint

AUTHOR

William Herrera (wherrera@skylightview.com)

COPYRIGHT

  Copyright (C) 2007 William Hererra.  All Rights Reserved.

  This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  under the same terms as Perl itself.