rand-transact-sql.md

title	RAND (Transact-SQL)
description	RAND (Transact-SQL)
author	MikeRayMSFT
ms.author	mikeray
ms.reviewer
ms.date	03/06/2017
ms.prod	sql
ms.prod_service	synapse-analytics, database-engine, sql-database
ms.technology	t-sql
ms.topic	reference
ms.custom
f1_keywords	RAND RAND_TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	RAND function values [SQL Server], random float random float value
dev_langs	TSQL
monikerRange	= azuresqldb-current || = azure-sqldw-latest || >= sql-server-2016 || >= sql-server-linux-2017 || = azuresqldb-mi-current

RAND (Transact-SQL)

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Returns a pseudo-random float value from 0 through 1, exclusive.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

RAND ( [ seed ] )  

[!INCLUDEsql-server-tsql-previous-offline-documentation]

Note

[!INCLUDEsynapse-analytics-od-unsupported-syntax]

Arguments

seed
Is an integer expression (tinyint, smallint, or int) that gives the seed value. If seed is not specified, the [!INCLUDEssDEnoversion] assigns a seed value at random. For a specified seed value, the result returned is always the same.

Return Types

float

Remarks

Repetitive calls of RAND() with the same seed value return the same results.

For one connection, if RAND() is called with a specified seed value, all subsequent calls of RAND() produce results based on the seeded RAND() call. For example, the following query will always return the same sequence of numbers.

SELECT RAND(100), RAND(), RAND()   

Examples

The following example produces four different random numbers that are generated by the RAND function.

DECLARE @counter SMALLINT;  
SET @counter = 1;  
WHILE @counter < 5  
   BEGIN  
      SELECT RAND() Random_Number  
      SET @counter = @counter + 1  
   END;  
GO  

See Also

Mathematical Functions (Transact-SQL)