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Bug #69396 Strange behavior of rand function with specific big $max value
Submitted: 2015-04-07 20:13 UTC Modified: 2017-12-26 12:19 UTC
Votes:2
Avg. Score:3.5 ± 0.5
Reproduced:2 of 2 (100.0%)
Same Version:2 (100.0%)
Same OS:1 (50.0%)
From: mariusz at mariuszgil dot pl Assigned: nikic (profile)
Status: Closed Package: *Math Functions
PHP Version: 5.5.23 OS: Mac, Linux
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2015-04-07 20:13 UTC] mariusz at mariuszgil dot pl
Description:
------------
With specific big $max value, rand(0, $max) function returns unexpected, strange values. 

Test script creates an array with numbers of occurences rand(0, $max) % $n results. Expected result is an array with all values (almost) equal, with big $iter value.

But when $max is equal:
- getrandmax() * 2
- getrandmax() * 2 + 1
- getrandmax() * 2 + 2
returned array looks like:

array(16) {
  [0]=>
  int(0)
  [1]=>
  int(124837)
  [2]=>
  int(0)
  [3]=>
  int(125168)
  [4]=>
  int(0)
  [5]=>
  int(124687)
  [6]=>
  int(0)
  [7]=>
  int(125015)
  [8]=>
  int(0)
  [9]=>
  int(124685)
  [10]=>
  int(0)
  [11]=>
  int(125265)
  [12]=>
  int(0)
  [13]=>
  int(125077)
  [14]=>
  int(0)
  [15]=>
  int(125266)
}

When $max is equal:
- getrandmax() * 2 + 4
- getrandmax() * 2 + 6
- getrandmax() * 2 + 8
- getrandmax() * 2 + 10
- ...
distribution of counters looks very strange, like:

array(16) {
  [0]=>
  int(83187)
  [1]=>
  int(41787)
  [2]=>
  int(83074)
  [3]=>
  int(41420)
  [4]=>
  int(83377)
  [5]=>
  int(41756)
  [6]=>
  int(83319)
  [7]=>
  int(41941)
  [8]=>
  int(83469)
  [9]=>
  int(41925)
  [10]=>
  int(83327)
  [11]=>
  int(41544)
  [12]=>
  int(83287)
  [13]=>
  int(41528)
  [14]=>
  int(83098)
  [15]=>
  int(41961)
}

Probably, when $max is greater then getrandmax(), an error/notice should be generated.


Test script:
---------------
<?php

$iter = 1000000;
$max = getrandmax() * 2;
$n = 16;

$values = array_fill(0, $n, 0);

for ($i = 0; $i < $iter; $i++) {
        $values[rand(0, $max) % $n] += 1;
}

var_dump($values);

Expected result:
----------------
Expected results of test script is something similiar to:

array(16) {
  [0]=>
  int(62287)
  [1]=>
  int(62495)
  [2]=>
  int(62638)
  [3]=>
  int(62791)
  [4]=>
  int(62386)
  [5]=>
  int(62533)
  [6]=>
  int(62921)
  [7]=>
  int(62532)
  [8]=>
  int(62971)
  [9]=>
  int(62541)
  [10]=>
  int(62854)
  [11]=>
  int(61833)
  [12]=>
  int(62269)
  [13]=>
  int(62305)
  [14]=>
  int(62351)
  [15]=>
  int(62293)
}

when all values are close to each other.


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 [2015-04-08 13:54 UTC] cmb@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Verified
 [2015-04-08 13:54 UTC] cmb@php.net
At least in NTS builds, for $max > getrandmax() PHP calls the PRNG
of the C library and simply scales up the returned value, so some
values will be never be generated. For instance, rand(0, 2 *
getrandmax() + 1) will (usually) never return an odd value.

Instead of emitting a notice when $max > getrandmax(), or even
changing the behavior, it might be sufficient to change the
documentation accordingly.
 [2017-12-26 12:19 UTC] nikic@php.net
-Status: Verified +Status: Closed -Assigned To: +Assigned To: nikic
 [2017-12-26 12:19 UTC] nikic@php.net
This has been fixed in PHP 7.1.
 
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