该算法将rand5的调用次数减少到理论最小值7/5。通过产生接下来的5个rand7数字来调用它7次。

没有任何随机位的拒绝，也不可能一直等待结果。

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# random integer from 1 to 5
def rand5
    STDERR.putc '.'
    1 + rand( 5 )
end

@bucket = 0
@bucket_size = 0

# random integer from 1 to 7
def rand7
    if @bucket_size == 0
        @bucket = 7.times.collect{ |d| rand5 * 5**d }.reduce( &:+ )
        @bucket_size = 5
    end

    next_rand7 = @bucket%7 + 1

    @bucket      /= 7
    @bucket_size -= 1

    return next_rand7
end

35.times.each{ putc rand7.to_s }

这个怎么样

rand5 () % + rand5 (2) + 2 (2) % + rand5 rand5 () (2) % + rand5 % + rand5 (2) 2

不确定这是均匀分布的。有什么建议吗?

简单高效:

int rand7 ( void )
{
    return 4; // this number has been calculated using
              // rand5() and is in the range 1..7
}

(灵感来自你最喜欢的“程序员”卡通?)

rand7() = (rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5())%7+1

编辑:这并不奏效。误差约为千分之二(假设是完美的rand5)。桶得到:

value   Count  Error%
1       11158  -0.0035
2       11144  -0.0214
3       11144  -0.0214
4       11158  -0.0035
5       11172  +0.0144
6       11177  +0.0208
7       11172  +0.0144

通过转换到的和

n   Error%
10  +/- 1e-3,
12  +/- 1e-4,
14  +/- 1e-5,
16  +/- 1e-6,
...
28  +/- 3e-11

似乎每增加2就增加一个数量级

BTW:上面的误差表不是通过采样产生的，而是通过以下递归关系产生的:

P [x,n]是给定n次调用rand5，输出=x可能发生的次数。

  p[1,1] ... p[5,1] = 1
  p[6,1] ... p[7,1] = 0

  p[1,n] = p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1]
  p[2,n] = p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1]
  p[3,n] = p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1]
  p[4,n] = p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1]
  p[5,n] = p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1]
  p[6,n] = p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1]
  p[7,n] = p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1]

只需要缩放第一个函数的输出

0) you have a number in range 1-5
1) subtract 1 to make it in range 0-4
2) multiply by (7-1)/(5-1) to make it in range 0-6
3) add 1 to increment the range: Now your result is in between 1-7

只要没有剩下7种可能性，就再画一个随机数，将可能性数乘以5。在Perl中:

$num = 0;
$possibilities = 1;

sub rand7
{
  while( $possibilities < 7 )
  {
    $num = $num * 5 + int(rand(5));
    $possibilities *= 5;
  }
  my $result = $num % 7;
  $num = int( $num / 7 );
  $possibilities /= 7;
  return $result;
}