Categories:
Help

CodingForums
Having trouble with scripting? Visit our help forum to get the answers you need.

Partners
This is a

Generating a random number in JavaScript

A popular question on CodingForums.com is how to generate a random number in JavaScript. A random number is useful- if not required- in the creation of certain popular JS applications, such as a dice, random image script, or random link generator. In this JavaScript article, we'll learn how to output a random number that falls within the range 1 to x, where x is any integer >1.

The results may be unpredictable, but the technique to getting them certainly is not. To generate a random number in JavaScript, simply use the following code:

var randomnumber=Math.floor(Math.random()*11)

where 11 dictates that the random number will fall between 0-10. To increase the range to, say, 100, simply change 11 to 101 instead.

Some of you may be curious as to why Math.floor(), instead of Math.round(), is used in the above code. While both successfully round off its containing parameter to an integer within the designated range, Math.floor does so more "evenly", so the resulting integer isn't lopsided towards either end of the number spectrum. In other words, a more random number is returned using Math.floor(). By the way, the Random Motivational script uses just the aforementioned code to randomly display a quote.