(octave.info)Random Number Generation

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26.5 Random Number Generation
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Octave can generate random numbers from a large number of distributions.
The random number generators are based on the random number generators
described in Note: Special Utility Matrices.

   The following table summarizes the available random number generators
(in alphabetical order).

Distribution                  Function
-----------------------------------------------------
Univariate Discrete           ‘discrete_rnd’
Distribution
Empirical Distribution        ‘empirical_rnd’
Exponential Distribution      ‘rande’
Gamma Distribution            ‘randg’
Poisson Distribution          ‘randp’
Standard Normal               ‘randn’
Distribution
Uniform Distribution          ‘rand’
Uniform Distribution          ‘randi’
(integers)

 -- : discrete_rnd (V, P)
 -- : discrete_rnd (V, P, R)
 -- : discrete_rnd (V, P, R, C, ...)
 -- : discrete_rnd (V, P, [SZ])
     Return a matrix of random samples from the univariate distribution
     which assumes the values in V with probabilities P.

     When called with a single size argument, return a square matrix
     with the dimension specified.  When called with more than one
     scalar argument the first two arguments are taken as the number of
     rows and columns and any further arguments specify additional
     matrix dimensions.  The size may also be specified with a vector of
     dimensions SZ.

     If no size arguments are given then the result matrix is the common
     size of V and P.

 -- : empirical_rnd (DATA)
 -- : empirical_rnd (DATA, R)
 -- : empirical_rnd (DATA, R, C, ...)
 -- : empirical_rnd (DATA, [SZ])
     Return a matrix of random samples from the empirical distribution
     obtained from the univariate sample DATA.

     When called with a single size argument, return a square matrix
     with the dimension specified.  When called with more than one
     scalar argument the first two arguments are taken as the number of
     rows and columns and any further arguments specify additional
     matrix dimensions.  The size may also be specified with a vector of
     dimensions SZ.

     If no size arguments are given then the result matrix is a random
     ordering of the sample DATA.