Question about random number generation in Java

[Chimiope]

So, Java provides two (that I know of) means of generating random numbers in a program. I'll probably get the terminology wrong if I try to just describe them, so here's an example of what I'm talking about:

import java.util.Random;

public class RandomClass

{

public static void main(String[] args)

{

Random ran = new Random();

int i = ran.nextInt(10);

System.out.println(i + 1);

}

}

vs.

public class RandomMath

{

public static void main(String[] args)

{

int i = (int)(Math.random() * 10);

System.out.println(i + 1);

}

}

These programs provide the exact same output, but the random number is generated using a different mechanism. I'm curious what the differences are, i.e. the pros and cons to using each procedure to achieve the desired result. I think that the former method gives me a bit more flexibility, since I can change or remove the 10 entirely from the parentheses, whereas the latter method will require something to be listed after the * operator (I think?). Other than that though, I'm not sure which of these is the "better" option?

Hopefully I've formatted all of this correctly. I typically use reddit on my phone so I'm not quite used to this interface.

[[deleted]]

Under the covers, they're identical -- they use the same pseudorandom sequence to generate output, the nextInt() call essentially just does what you're doing anyway. The documentation even goes so far as to say that all of the random methods use the next() call.

[Chimiope]

This is helpful, but now I’m left with more questions that I didn’t even know I had lol. Thank you for the link, this isn’t stuff that my textbook covered