This is the built-in help made by Microsoft for the command 'Get-Random', in PowerShell version 2 - as retrieved from
Windows version 'Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Ultimate ' PowerShell help files on 2016-06-23.
For PowerShell version 3 and up, where you have Update-Help, this command was run just before creating the web pages from the help files.
Gets a random number, or selects objects randomly from a collection.
Get-Random [-InputObject] <Object[]> [-Count <int>] [-SetSeed <int>] [<CommonParameters>]
Get-Random [[-Maximum] <Object>] [-Minimum <Object>] [-SetSeed <int>] [<CommonParameters>]
The Get-Random cmdlet gets a randomly selected number. If you submit a collection of objects to Get-Random, it gets one or more randomly selected
objects from the collection.
Without parameters or input, a Get-Random command returns a randomly selected 32-bit unsigned integer between 0 (zero) and Int32.MaxValue (0x7FFF
FFFF, 2,147,483,647).
You can use the parameters of Get-Random to specify a seed number, minimum and maximum values, and the number of objects returned from a submitte
d collection.
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Online version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113446
<
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random
3951433
Description
-----------
This command gets a random integer between 0 (zero) and Int32.MaxValue.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 2 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -maximum 100
47
Description
-----------
This command gets a random integer between 0 (zero) and 99.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 3 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -minimum -100 -maximum 100
-56
Description
-----------
This command gets a random integer between -100 and 99.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 4 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -min 10.7 -max 20.93
18.08467273887
Description
-----------
This command gets a random floating-point number greater than or equal to 10.7 and less than 20.92.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 5 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -input 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13
8
Description
-----------
This command gets a randomly selected number from the specified array.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 6 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -input 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 -count 3
3
1
13
Description
-----------
This command gets three randomly selected numbers in random order from the array.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 7 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -input 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 -count ([int]::MaxValue)
2
3
5
1
8
13
Description
-----------
This command returns the entire collection in random order. The value of the Count parameter is the MaxValue static property of integers.
To return an entire collection in random order, enter any number that is greater than or equal to the number of objects in the collection.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 8 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -input "red", "yellow", "blue"
yellow
Description
-----------
This command returns a random value from a non-numeric collection.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 9 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-process | get-random
Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName
------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- -----------
144 4 2080 488 36 0.48 3164 wmiprvse
Description
-----------
This command gets a randomly selected process from the collection of processes on the computer.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 10 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-content servers.txt | get-random -count (get-content servers.txt).count | foreach {invoke-expression -computer $_ -command 'get-process
powershell'}
Description
-----------
This command runs a command on a series of remote computers in random order.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 11 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random -max 100 -setseed 23
# Commands with the default seed are pseudorandom
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
59
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
65
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
21
# Commands with the same seed are not random
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100 -setseed 23
74
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100 -setseed 23
74
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100 -setseed 23
74
# SetSeed results in a repeatable series
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100 -setseed 23
74
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
56
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
84
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
46
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100 -setseed 23
74
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
56
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
84
PS C:\ps-test> get-random -max 100
46
Description
-----------
This example shows the effect of using the SetSeed parameter. Because SetSeed produces non-random behavior, it is typically used only to reproduc
e results, such as when debugging or analyzing a script.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 12 --------------------------
C:\PS>$files = dir -path c:\* -recurse
C:\PS> $sample = $files | get-random -count 50
Description
-----------
These commands get a randomly selected sample of 50 files from the C: drive of the local computer.
-------------------------- EXAMPLE 13 --------------------------
C:\PS>get-random 10001
7600
Description
-----------
This command gets a random integer less than 10001. Because the Maximum parameter has position 1, you can omit the parameter name when the value
is the first or only unnamed parameter in the command.