RAND
The RAND function returns a random floating-point value between 0 and 1. An argument can be specified as an optional seed value.
- numeric-expression
- If numeric-expression is specified, it is used as the seed value. The argument must be an
expression that returns a value of a built-in integer data type (SMALLINT or INTEGER). The value
must be between 0 and 2,147,483,646.
The argument can also be a character string or graphic string data type. The string input is implicitly cast to a numeric value of DECFLOAT(34) and then assigned to an INTEGER value.
The result of the function is a double precision floating-point number.
A specific seed value, other than zero, will produce the same sequence of random numbers for a
specific instance of a RAND function in a query each time the query is executed. The seed value is
used only for the first invocation of an instance of the RAND function within a statement.
RAND(0) is processed the same as RAND().
The RAND function is a non-deterministic function.
Example:
The following example assigns a random number for the column EMPL_ID in the table EMPLOYEE.
INSERT INTO EMPL_COMP (EMPL_ID, EMPL_NAME) VALUES(RANDOM(),'KANE');
The above example assigns a random value for the EMPL_ID column for the employee KANE as shown below.
EMPL_ID, EMPL_NAME, COMPANY, LOCATION, UPDATED_TS
1 , AKHIL , TIMBER INC. , NY , 2019-11-26 05:39:59.454707
2 , ELICA , STANLEY INC. , TX ,
3 , SMITH , CHROME INC. , WA ,
1919574970 , KANE , , ,