PHP | stats_rand_gen_normal() Function

Hello folks! welcome back to a new edition of our tutorial on PHP. In this tutorial guide, we are going to be studying about the PHP stats_rand_gen_normal() function.

The PHP stats_rand_gen_normal() Function generates a single random deviate from the normal distribution.

Syntax

Following below is the syntax to use this function -

float stats_rand_gen_normal( float $av, float $sd )

READ: PHP | stats_rand_gen_int() Function

Parameter Details

Sr.No	Parameter	Description
1	av	The mean of the normal distribution
2	sd	The standard deviation of the normal distribution

Return Value

This built-in PHP function returns a random deviate from the normal distribution with av as the mean of the normal distribution and sd as the standard deviation of the normal distribution.

Dependencies

This built-in function was first introduced in statistics extension (PHP version 4.0.0 and PEAR v1.4.0). In this tutorial guide, we used the latest release of stats-2.0.3 (PHP v7.0.0 or newer and PEAR version 1.4.0 or newer).

Example1

Below example generates a random deviate from the normal distribution with mean set to 0, and standard deviation set to 1 -

<?php
   var_dump(is_float(stats_rand_gen_normal(0, 1)));
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

bool(true)

Example2

Below example generates a random deviate from the normal distribution with mean set to 0, and standard deviation set to 0 -

<?php
   var_dump(stats_rand_gen_normal(0, 0));
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

float(0)

Example3

Following is an error case. In the following example below, we have passed sd < 0. A warning is shown in logs -

<?php
   // error cases
   var_dump(stats_rand_gen_normal(0, -0.1)); // sd < 0
?>

Output

The above code will produce the following result and a warning in logs PHP Warning: stats_rand_gen_normal(): sd < 0.0. sd: -1.000000E-1

bool(false)

READ: PHP | stats_rand_gen_noncentral_t() Function

Alright guys! This is where we are going to be rounding up for this tutorial post. In our next tutorial, we are going to be discussing about the PHP stats_rand_gen_t() Function.

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