Get-SecureRandom

Get-SecureRandom
    [[-Maximum] <Object>]
    [-Minimum <Object>]
    [-Count <Int32>]
    [<CommonParameters>]

Get-SecureRandom
    [-InputObject] <Object[]>
    [-Count <Int32>]
    [<CommonParameters>]

Get-SecureRandom
    [-InputObject] <Object[]>
    [-Shuffle]
    [<CommonParameters>]

The Get-SecureRandom cmdlet gets a randomly selected number. If you submit a collection of objects to Get-SecureRandom, it gets one or more randomly selected objects from the collection.

Without parameters or input, a Get-SecureRandom command returns a randomly selected 32-bit unsigned integer between 0 (zero) and [int32]::MaxValue.

You can use the parameters of Get-SecureRandom to specify the minimum and maximum values and the number of objects returned from a collection.

Get-SecureRandom generates cryptographically secure randomness using the RandomNumberGenerator class.

This command gets a random integer between 0 (zero) and Int32.MaxValue.

Get-SecureRandom

3951433

Get-SecureRandom -Maximum 100

47

Get-SecureRandom -Minimum -100 -Maximum 100

56

This command gets a random floating-point number greater than or equal to 10.7 and less than 20.93.

Get-SecureRandom -Minimum 10.7 -Maximum 20.93

18.08467273887

This command gets a randomly selected number from the specified array.

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 | Get-SecureRandom

8

This command gets three randomly selected numbers in random order from an array.

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 | Get-SecureRandom -Count 3

3
1
13

You can use the Shuffle parameter to return the entire collection in a random order.

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 | Get-SecureRandom -Shuffle

2
3
5
1
8
13

This command returns a random value from a non-numeric collection.

"red", "yellow", "blue" | Get-SecureRandom

yellow

These commands get a randomly selected sample of 50 files from the C: drive of the local computer.

$Files = Get-ChildItem -Path C:\* -Recurse
$Sample = $Files | Get-SecureRandom -Count 50

This example rolls a fair die 1200 times and counts the outcomes. The first command, ForEach-Object repeats the call to Get-SecureRandom from the piped in numbers (1-6). The results are grouped by their value with Group-Object and formatted as a table with Select-Object.

1..1200 | ForEach-Object {
    1..6 | Get-SecureRandom
} | Group-Object | Select-Object Name,Count

Name Count
---- -----
1      206
2      199
3      196
4      226
5      185
6      188

You can use the Count parameter without piping objects to Get-SecureRandom. The following example gets three random numbers less than 10.

Get-SecureRandom -Count 3 -Maximum 10

9
0
8

In this example, the InputObject parameter specifies an array that contains an empty string ('') and $null.

Get-SecureRandom -InputObject @('a','',$null)

Get-SecureRandom returns either a, empty string, or $null. The empty string displays as a blank line and $null returns to a PowerShell prompt.

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutBuffer, -OutVariable, -PipelineVariable, -ProgressAction, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

You can pipe any object to this cmdlet. It selects values randomly from the piped objects.

This cmdlet returns an integer or floating-point number, or an object selected randomly from a submitted collection.

Get-SecureRandom doesn't always return the same data type as the input value. The following table shows the output type for each of the numeric input types.