Random integer generation in an interval with Modern OOP Perl

I always have to search how to generate a random integer number between a range because this is a common task that I use a lot in tests, but really, I can't memorize it.

Though, this is how I would do it in 2021.

use v5.16;
use strict;
use warnings;

# Class definition
package Random::Range {
  use Zydeco;
  class Integer {
    method pick ( Int $min, Int $max ) {
      return $min + int ( rand ( $max - $min ));
    }
  }
}

# Script
say Random::Range->new_integer->pick(1, 100);
#==> 42 

So what did we do here? We used the rand function where we applied the int function, so we would get an integer, not a fractional number. The small calculation makes possible to restrict the result to the desired interval.

All of this is glued into a minimal Zydeco class that adds a very nice object-oriented interface. You maybe don't need Zydeco, this simple one-liner would work:

perl -le 'my @interval = (1, 100); print $interval[0] + int ( rand ( $interval[1] - $interval[0] ))'  

Note this is not cryptographically secure and should only be used in simple cases: if you need a secure implementation, please check some appropriate solutions on CPAN.

Art: digital painting by myself.

Comments

[Tib]

How are you doing the digital painting?

[🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔]

It's not computer generated through Perl unfortunately. I did it by hand, using Krita and a watercolor brush, plus adding more water on the "fresh" painting I guess. Actually I don't remember all the details very well and would maybe not be able to redo it again. Easier than real brushes and canvas that's all I know.

[Tib]

By hand = with a drawing tablet?

[🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔]

Maybe but not sure because it is basically like trashing a bucket of painting on a canvas. It's more likely I did it on my ThinkPad trackpad or something.

[🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔]

The sources are here tknk.io/Aafd

[Mark Gardner]

I have to agree with your one-liner; writing a whole class for this seems a bit much.

[🌌 Sébastien Feugère ☔]

Yer, I guess it is overkill, plus, some people could find it slow (me I have time, 1 second is ok to me to get a random number).

The idea is also to show off a bit of the Modern Perl™ OOP capabilities, maybe some people would be like « oh, this is Perl? It changed! ». Because I feel like Zydeco is an already usable OO system that is the closest to what Corrina seems to become. We will have to wait a bit more before being able to play with the "modern" core OO capabilities, but this is totally usable.

[Mark Gardner]

Those people need to realize you don't always need OO. One of Perl's strengths is that it's multi-paradigm: you use the style that best fits the problem.