In PHP, how do I generate a big pseudo-random number?

Question

I\'m looking for a way to generate a big random number with PHP, something like:

mt_rand($lower, $upper);

The closer I\'ve

Answer 1

/* Inputs: 
 * min - GMP number or string: lower bound
 * max - GMP number or string: upper bound
 * limiter - GMP number or string: how much randomness to use.
 *  this value is quite obscure (see `gmp_random`, but the default
 *  supplies several hundred bits of randomness, 
 *  which is probably enough.
 * Output: A random number between min (inclusive) and max (exclusive).
*/
function BigRandomNumber($min, $max, $limiter = 20) {
  $range = gmp_sub($max, $min);
  $random = gmp_random();
  $random = gmp_mod($random, $range);
  $random = gmp_add($min, $random);
  return $random;
}

This is just the classic formula rand_range($min, $max) = $min + rand() % ($max - $min) translated to arbitrary-precision arithmetic. It can exhibit a certain amount of bias if $max - $min isn't a power of two, but if the number of bits of randomness is high enough compared to the size of $max - $min the bias becomes negligible.