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The Ziggurat Method for Generating Random Variables
Open accessAbstract
We provide a new version of our ziggurat method for generating a random variable from a given decreasing density. It is faster and simpler than the original, and will produce, for example, normal or exponential variates at the rate of 15 million per second with a C version on a 400MHz PC. It uses two tables, integers ki, and reals wi. Some 99% of the time, the required x is produced by: Generate a random 32-bit integer j and let i be the index formed from the rightmost 8 bits of j. If j < k, return x = j x wi. We illustrate with C code that provides for inline generation of both normal and exponential variables, with a short procedure for settting up the necessary tables.
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Metadata
- Authors
- Marsaglia, G., & Tsang, W. W.
- Venue
- Journal of Statistical Software
- Publisher
- Foundation for Open Access Statistic
- Published
- 2000
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 8
- ISSN
- 1548-7660 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2117106078
- Cited by
- 568
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 1.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
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