How to Generate Random Number in PHP?

Problem:

You want to generate a random number, it may have any length or within a range that you’ll specify. 

 

Solution:

You can use mt_rand() function to generate one random number of any length or a random number between a certain range.

Generate a random number without any range

When you use mt_rand() without any parameter, the function returns a random number between 0 and mt_getrandmax(), inclusive (here, mt_getrandmax() shows the largest possible random value). See the following code-

<?php
echo mt_rand() . "<br />";
echo mt_rand() . "<br />";
?>

Output:
1669333830
32691779

Here, you’ll get different random numbers when you run the above code.

Generate one random number ina range

When you use two parameters in the mt_rand() function, the function returns a number between the two numbers, inclusive.The first one indicates the minimum and the second one indicates the maximum number. See the following code-

<?php
echo mt_rand(10000, 99999);
?>

Output:
34424

Note: PHP has another random number generator function – rand(). But, mt_rand() function uses “Mersenne Twister” random number generator which works four time faster than rand() function does.