4.3.6: Example - Random Number Generator

Our final example of an iterator is short and simple, it is a random number generator.

type Rnd struct {
    seed int64
    cur  float64
    gen  *rand.Rand
}

func Rand() *Rnd {
    var r Rnd
    r.seed = time.Now().UnixNano()
    r.First()
    return &r
}

The structure contains the seed used to generate the sequence, the current value (a floating number in the [0..1] range) and a reference to Go's random number generator.
The constructor simply seeds a random sequence from the current time and generates the first value.

func (r *Rnd) First() error {
    r.gen = rand.New(rand.NewSource(r.seed))
    r.cur = r.gen.Float64()
    return nil
}

func (r *Rnd) Next() error {
    r.cur = r.gen.Float64()
    return nil
}

The iterator is a BoundedAtStart iterator, i.e. it has a beginning and can easily be restored to it through the First() method. The Next() generates the next random value.

func (r *Rnd) AtEnd() bool {
    return false
}

func (r *Rnd) Error() error {
    return nil
}

This iterator represents an infinite stream of values on the form [rval1, rval2, ...), therefore the only job of the AtEnd() method is to return false.

func (r *Rnd) Value() interface{} {
    return r.cur
}

func (r *Rnd) Float64() float64 {
    return r.cur
}

The iterator has a special type casting function so we can read float64 values from it without have to do the type assertion ourselves.

func (r *Rnd) SetSeed(seed int64) {
    r.seed = seed
    r.First()
}

func (r *Rnd) Seed() int64 {
    return r.seed
}

Lastsly, the iterator provids methods to retrieve the seeding used to generate the sequence, as well as reset and iterator to a previously saved seeding value.
A sampel usage is as follows:

fmt.Print("A quarted of random pairs: ")
ritr1, ritr2 := Rand(), Rand()
for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
    r1 := ritr1.Float64()
    r2 := ritr2.Float64()
    fmt.Printf("(%f, %f), ", r1, r2)
    ritr1.Next()
    ritr2.Next()
}

seed1, seed2 := ritr1.Seed(), ritr2.Seed()
fmt.Println("")
fmt.Print("A quarted of another random pairs: ")
ritr1, ritr2 = Rand(), Rand()
for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
    r1 := ritr1.Float64()
    r2 := ritr2.Float64()
    fmt.Printf("(%f, %f), ", r1, r2)
    ritr1.Next()
    ritr2.Next()
}

fmt.Println("")
fmt.Print("The first quarted of random pairs: ")
ritr1.SetSeed(seed1)
ritr2.SetSeed(seed2)
for i := 0; i < 4; i++ {
    r1 := ritr1.Float64()
    r2 := ritr2.Float64()
    fmt.Printf("(%f, %f), ", r1, r2)
    ritr1.Next()
    ritr2.Next()
}

We generate three list of a quarted of a pair of random numbers, where the first sequence and the last sequence are the same.
Get the source at GitHub. The Random iterator is also awailable in the iterator library as a RandomAccess iterator.