note 49821 deleted from function.rand by felipe

Note Submitter: php dot net at dannysauer dot com 

----

Actually, if you want 2 different random numbers, you should probably use a while loop.  This is quicker and doesn't have the possibility of running into a recursive function limit.

<?php
function fn_arrRandom($min, $max){
   // generate two random numbers
   $iRandom1 =0;
   $iRandom2 = 0;
   // compare them
   while ($iRandom1 == $iRandom2){
       // the numbers are equal, try again
       $iRandom1 = rand($min, $max);
       $iRandom2 = rand($min, $max);
   }
   // they're not equal - go ahead and return them
   return array($iRandom1, $iRandom2);
}

print_r(fn_arrRandom(3, 13));
?>

At that point, we may as well write a function that returns an arbitrary number of differing random numbers:

<?php
function random_array($min, $max, $num){
   $range = 1+$min-$max;
   // if num is bigger than the potential range, barf.
   // note that this will likely get a little slow as $num 
   // approaches $range, esp. for large values of $num and $range
   if($num > $range){
      return false;
   }
   // set up a place to hold the return value
   $ret = Array();
   // fill the array
   while(count($ret)) < $num){
      $a = false; // just declare it outside of the do-while scope
      // generate a number that's not already in the array
      // (use do-while so the rand() happens at least once)
      do{
         $a = rand($min, $max);
      }while(in_array($ret, $a));
      // stick the new number at the end of the array
      $ret[] = $a;
   }
   return $ret;
}

print_r(random_array(3, 13, 5));
?>