Generates random deviates and other random data using a {@link RandomGenerator}instance to generate non-secure data and a {@link java.security.SecureRandom}instance to provide data for the
nextSecureXxx
methods. If no
RandomGenerator
is provided in the constructor, the default is to use a {@link Well19937c} generator. To plug in a differentimplementation, either implement
RandomGenerator
directly or extend {@link AbstractRandomGenerator}.
Supports reseeding the underlying pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). The SecurityProvider
and Algorithm
used by the SecureRandom
instance can also be reset.
For details on the default PRNGs, see {@link java.util.Random} and{@link java.security.SecureRandom}.
Usage Notes:
- Instance variables are used to maintain
RandomGenerator
and SecureRandom
instances used in data generation. Therefore, to generate a random sequence of values or strings, you should use just one RandomDataGenerator
instance repeatedly. - The "secure" methods are *much* slower. These should be used only when a cryptographically secure random sequence is required. A secure random sequence is a sequence of pseudo-random values which, in addition to being well-dispersed (so no subsequence of values is an any more likely than other subsequence of the the same length), also has the additional property that knowledge of values generated up to any point in the sequence does not make it any easier to predict subsequent values.
- When a new
RandomDataGenerator
is created, the underlying random number generators are not initialized. If you do not explicitly seed the default non-secure generator, it is seeded with the current time in milliseconds plus the system identity hash code on first use. The same holds for the secure generator. If you provide a RandomGenerator
to the constructor, however, this generator is not reseeded by the constructor nor is it reseeded on first use. - The
reSeed
and reSeedSecure
methods delegate to the corresponding methods on the underlying RandomGenerator
and SecureRandom
instances. Therefore, reSeed(long)
fully resets the initial state of the non-secure random number generator (so that reseeding with a specific value always results in the same subsequent random sequence); whereas reSeedSecure(long) does not reinitialize the secure random number generator (so secure sequences started with calls to reseedSecure(long) won't be identical). - This implementation is not synchronized. The underlying
RandomGenerator
or SecureRandom
instances are not protected by synchronization and are not guaranteed to be thread-safe. Therefore, if an instance of this class is concurrently utilized by multiple threads, it is the responsibility of client code to synchronize access to seeding and data generation methods.
@deprecated to be removed in 4.0. Use {@link RandomDataGenerator} instead