"CybercafeUser" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Excel's help mentions the Abramovitz (1969?) which you can also find as a > ref in 25 years old HP calculators. > It is not enough for most applications. The one in the addind for > statistical analysis seems to be different but Microsoft never answered my > questions; > Yves ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------- Abramowitz is sort of a icon. Every time you see this platinum icon, it refers to the classic publication of the old National Bureau of Standards in 1963. Dover republishes it, so it is still in print. It is the gold standard on nummerical algorithms, and all kinds of everything else. My copy is dog chewed (one corner) and just about worn out.
Excel used RAND as a worksheet cell function. It is a very simple one liner, very fast, and gives in most situations an acceptable result. Microsoft gave out the algorithm. There is a lot of RNG pedelling out there, and even more opinions on RAND. The random number generator in the data analysis toolpak is different, one that was not invented by Microsoft, and Microsoft apparently cannot divulge it. It appears to be a simple congruential generator on a 16 bit integer. Has a short period. In general, don't use it. Dates back to the 1980's when anything programed for a computer was automatically accepted as being "the cat's meow". David Heiser . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
