(我剽窃了亚当·罗森菲尔德的答案，使其运行速度提高了7%左右。)

假设rand5()返回分布相等的{0,1,2,3,4}中的一个，目标是返回分布相等的{0,1,2,3,4,5,6}。

int rand7() {
  i = 5 * rand5() + rand5();
  max = 25;
  //i is uniform among {0 ... max-1}
  while(i < max%7) {
    //i is uniform among {0 ... (max%7 - 1)}
    i *= 5;
    i += rand5(); //i is uniform {0 ... (((max%7)*5) - 1)}
    max %= 7;
    max *= 5; //once again, i is uniform among {0 ... max-1}
  }
  return(i%7);
}

我们在跟踪这个循环在变量max中所能产生的最大值。如果到目前为止的结果在max%7和max-1之间，那么结果将均匀分布在该范围内。如果不是，则使用余数，余数是0到max%7-1之间的随机数，然后再次调用rand()来生成一个新的数字和一个新的max。然后我们重新开始。

编辑:在这个方程中，期望调用rand5()的次数是x:

x =  2     * 21/25
   + 3     *  4/25 * 14/20
   + 4     *  4/25 *  6/20 * 28/30
   + 5     *  4/25 *  6/20 *  2/30 * 7/10
   + 6     *  4/25 *  6/20 *  2/30 * 3/10 * 14/15
   + (6+x) *  4/25 *  6/20 *  2/30 * 3/10 *  1/15
x = about 2.21 calls to rand5()

Here's a solution that fits entirely within integers and is within about 4% of optimal (i.e. uses 1.26 random numbers in {0..4} for every one in {0..6}). The code's in Scala, but the math should be reasonably clear in any language: you take advantage of the fact that 7^9 + 7^8 is very close to 5^11. So you pick an 11 digit number in base 5, and then interpret it as a 9 digit number in base 7 if it's in range (giving 9 base 7 numbers), or as an 8 digit number if it's over the 9 digit number, etc.:

abstract class RNG {
  def apply(): Int
}

class Random5 extends RNG {
  val rng = new scala.util.Random
  var count = 0
  def apply() = { count += 1 ; rng.nextInt(5) }
}

class FiveSevener(five: RNG) {
  val sevens = new Array[Int](9)
  var nsevens = 0
  val to9 = 40353607;
  val to8 = 5764801;
  val to7 = 823543;
  def loadSevens(value: Int, count: Int) {
    nsevens = 0;
    var remaining = value;
    while (nsevens < count) {
      sevens(nsevens) = remaining % 7
      remaining /= 7
      nsevens += 1
    }
  }
  def loadSevens {
    var fivepow11 = 0;
    var i=0
    while (i<11) { i+=1 ; fivepow11 = five() + fivepow11*5 }
    if (fivepow11 < to9) { loadSevens(fivepow11 , 9) ; return }
    fivepow11 -= to9
    if (fivepow11 < to8) { loadSevens(fivepow11 , 8) ; return }
    fivepow11 -= to8
    if (fivepow11 < 3*to7) loadSevens(fivepow11 % to7 , 7)
    else loadSevens
  }
  def apply() = {
    if (nsevens==0) loadSevens
    nsevens -= 1
    sevens(nsevens)
  }
}

如果你将一个测试粘贴到解释器中(实际上是REPL)，你会得到:

scala> val five = new Random5
five: Random5 = Random5@e9c592

scala> val seven = new FiveSevener(five)
seven: FiveSevener = FiveSevener@143c423

scala> val counts = new Array[Int](7)
counts: Array[Int] = Array(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)

scala> var i=0 ; while (i < 100000000) { counts( seven() ) += 1 ; i += 1 }
i: Int = 100000000

scala> counts
res0: Array[Int] = Array(14280662, 14293012, 14281286, 14284836, 14287188,
14289332, 14283684)

scala> five.count
res1: Int = 125902876

分布很好，很平坦(在每个箱子中，10^8的1/7大约在10k范围内，就像预期的近似高斯分布一样)。

通过使用滚动总数，您可以同时

保持平均分配;而且 不需要牺牲随机序列中的任何元素。

这两个问题都是简单的rand(5)+rand(5)…类型的解决方案。下面的Python代码展示了如何实现它(其中大部分是证明发行版)。

import random
x = []
for i in range (0,7):
    x.append (0)
t = 0
tt = 0
for i in range (0,700000):
    ########################################
    #####            qq.py             #####
    r = int (random.random () * 5)
    t = (t + r) % 7
    ########################################
    #####       qq_notsogood.py        #####
    #r = 20
    #while r > 6:
        #r =     int (random.random () * 5)
        #r = r + int (random.random () * 5)
    #t = r
    ########################################
    x[t] = x[t] + 1
    tt = tt + 1
high = x[0]
low = x[0]
for i in range (0,7):
    print "%d: %7d %.5f" % (i, x[i], 100.0 * x[i] / tt)
    if x[i] < low:
        low = x[i]
    if x[i] > high:
        high = x[i]
diff = high - low
print "Variation = %d (%.5f%%)" % (diff, 100.0 * diff / tt)

这个输出显示了结果:

pax$ python qq.py
0:   99908 14.27257
1:  100029 14.28986
2:  100327 14.33243
3:  100395 14.34214
4:   99104 14.15771
5:   99829 14.26129
6:  100408 14.34400
Variation = 1304 (0.18629%)

pax$ python qq.py
0:   99547 14.22100
1:  100229 14.31843
2:  100078 14.29686
3:   99451 14.20729
4:  100284 14.32629
5:  100038 14.29114
6:  100373 14.33900
Variation = 922 (0.13171%)

pax$ python qq.py
0:  100481 14.35443
1:   99188 14.16971
2:  100284 14.32629
3:  100222 14.31743
4:   99960 14.28000
5:   99426 14.20371
6:  100439 14.34843
Variation = 1293 (0.18471%)

一个简单的rand(5)+rand(5)，忽略那些返回大于6的情况，其典型变化为18%，是上面所示方法的100倍:

pax$ python qq_notsogood.py
0:   31756 4.53657
1:   63304 9.04343
2:   95507 13.64386
3:  127825 18.26071
4:  158851 22.69300
5:  127567 18.22386
6:   95190 13.59857
Variation = 127095 (18.15643%)

pax$ python qq_notsogood.py
0:   31792 4.54171
1:   63637 9.09100
2:   95641 13.66300
3:  127627 18.23243
4:  158751 22.67871
5:  126782 18.11171
6:   95770 13.68143
Variation = 126959 (18.13700%)

pax$ python qq_notsogood.py
0:   31955 4.56500
1:   63485 9.06929
2:   94849 13.54986
3:  127737 18.24814
4:  159687 22.81243
5:  127391 18.19871
6:   94896 13.55657
Variation = 127732 (18.24743%)

并且，根据Nixuz的建议，我已经清理了脚本，所以您可以提取并使用rand7…材料:

import random

# rand5() returns 0 through 4 inclusive.

def rand5():
    return int (random.random () * 5)

# rand7() generator returns 0 through 6 inclusive (using rand5()).

def rand7():
    rand7ret = 0
    while True:
        rand7ret = (rand7ret + rand5()) % 7
        yield rand7ret

# Number of test runs.

count = 700000

# Work out distribution.

distrib = [0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
rgen =rand7()
for i in range (0,count):
    r = rgen.next()
    distrib[r] = distrib[r] + 1

# Print distributions and calculate variation.

high = distrib[0]
low = distrib[0]
for i in range (0,7):
    print "%d: %7d %.5f" % (i, distrib[i], 100.0 * distrib[i] / count)
    if distrib[i] < low:
        low = distrib[i]
    if distrib[i] > high:
        high = distrib[i]
diff = high - low
print "Variation = %d (%.5f%%)" % (diff, 100.0 * diff / count)

这类似于@RobMcAfee，除了我使用魔术数字而不是2维数组。

int rand7() {
    int m = 1203068;
    int r = (m >> (rand5() - 1) * 5 + rand5() - 1) & 7;

    return (r > 0) ? r : rand7();
}

int rand7() {
    int value = rand5()
              + rand5() * 2
              + rand5() * 3
              + rand5() * 4
              + rand5() * 5
              + rand5() * 6;
    return value%7;
}

与选定的解决方案不同，该算法将在常数时间内运行。然而，它对rand5的调用比所选解决方案的平均运行时间多2次。

请注意，这个生成器并不完美(数字0比任何其他数字都有0.0064%的可能性)，但对于大多数实际目的，保证恒定的时间可能比这种不准确性更重要。

解释

这个解源于数字15624能被7整除的事实，因此，如果我们可以随机且均匀地生成从0到15624的数字，然后对7取余，我们就可以得到一个近乎均匀的rand7生成器。将rand5滚动6次，将0到15624之间的数字统一生成，并使用这些数字组成以5为基数的数字，如下所示:

rand5 * 5^5 + rand5 * 5^4 + rand5 * 5^3 + rand5 * 5^2 + rand5 * 5 + rand5

mod 7的属性允许我们稍微简化一下方程:

5^5 = 3 mod 7
5^4 = 2 mod 7
5^3 = 6 mod 7
5^2 = 4 mod 7
5^1 = 5 mod 7

So

rand5 * 5^5 + rand5 * 5^4 + rand5 * 5^3 + rand5 * 5^2 + rand5 * 5 + rand5

就变成了

rand5 * 3 + rand5 * 2 + rand5 * 6 + rand5 * 4 + rand5 * 5 + rand5

理论

15624这个数字不是随机选择的，而是可以用费马小定理来发现的，该定理指出，如果p是质数，那么

a^(p-1) = 1 mod p

这就得到，

(5^6)-1 = 0 mod 7

(5^6)-1等于

4 * 5^5 + 4 * 5^4 + 4 * 5^3 + 4 * 5^2 + 4 * 5 + 4

这是一个以5为底的数，因此我们可以看到，这种方法可以用于从任何随机数发生器到任何其他随机数发生器。尽管在使用指数p-1时总是会引入对0的小偏差。

为了更准确地推广这种方法，我们可以有这样一个函数:

def getRandomconverted(frm, to):
    s = 0
    for i in range(to):
        s += getRandomUniform(frm)*frm**i
    mx = 0
    for i in range(to):
        mx = (to-1)*frm**i 
    mx = int(mx/to)*to # maximum value till which we can take mod
    if s < mx:
        return s%to
    else:
        return getRandomconverted(frm, to)

在php中

function rand1to7() {
    do {
        $output_value = 0;
        for ($i = 0; $i < 28; $i++) {
            $output_value += rand1to5();
        }
    while ($output_value != 140);
    $output_value -= 12;
    return floor($output_value / 16);
}

循环生成16到127之间的随机数，除以16生成1到7.9375之间的浮点数，然后舍入得到1到7之间的整数。如果我没记错的话，得到7个结果中的任何一个的概率都是16/112。