Please giive this a look and let me know if it makes sense. It seems 'random enough' ; only 3 duplicates in a run of 10,000+ ::== gen6.bat :: generate set[s] of 6 lotto numbers in the range 01 to 49 @echo off setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion if %1'==' goto :main :gen requested number of sets for /L %%n in (1 1 %1) do ( call :main ) goto :eof :main @echo off > 6 for /L %%a in (1 1 6) do ( call :sub1 ) sort < 6 > 6sorted for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%a in (6sorted) do ( set S=!S!%%a ) echo !S! >> picklist set S= del 6* goto :eof :sub1 :loop set N=!random:~-2! if !N! equ 0 goto :loop if !N! gtr 49 goto :loop find "!N!" < 6 > nul if not errorlevel 1 goto :loop echo !N! >> 6 goto :eof ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Hi M2, set N=!random:~-2! if !N! equ 0 goto :loop if !N! gtr 49 goto :loop The above three lines can be replaced by the following one line: set /a N = !random! % 49 + 1 Which sets N to be a random number between 1 and 49. The % character is the modulo operator. Also this produces consistent results whereas your version sometimes produces 1, 2, 3 and sometimes 01, 02, 03. Next challenge: make it work without producing a temporary file! Anyone up for the challenge? Finally, I remember reading that such Lotto number generators shouldn't be used, because computer-based pseudo-random-number generators are not random enough, and if you are lucky enough to win the jackpot the chances are that many others, out of the millions who enter, will also have used the same random number generator (even though they will have used a different program, the random number generator algorithm may have been the same.) Therefore, you will have to share your £14million with many others; whereas, if you simply used a die or something really random, the chances are that you will take all the winnings yourself. Cheers, Klint PS Good luck, and will you buy me a beer when you win!!!

Can you tell me what programing language is that??? AMD ATHLON X2 5200 2.6ghz; ASUS M2N-E SLI; 2GB DDR800 KINGSTON; ASUS GF8600GTS; Seagate 7200rpm 320GB;

It's Win32 Command Processor (batch file) language!

Ok thanks. And i tought c++ was hard!! XD AMD ATHLON X2 5200 2.6ghz; ASUS M2N-E SLI; 2GB DDR800 KINGSTON; ASUS GF8600GTS; Seagate 7200rpm 320GB;

C++ is a practical language. Batch file language is not for use as a general-purpose programming language, except for masochists. If I were to write a Lotto application like that, I'd probably do it in Java, as an applet that can run inside a web browser. But doing it "batch language" demonstrates that this language is more powerful than many people realise, although it is quirky.

I ran this script though 10,000 iterations on 2K, then XP, then Vista for a grand total of 30,000 loops. (Aside: Took between 5 and 10 minutes on Vista. 2K took hours. XP is unknown; I started it before I went to sleep. In all three cases, the script spent most of its time in find.exe. This is irrelevant, though, because only XP and Vista share the same hardware.) Out of those iterations, the number of repeats were: 2K: 3 / 10000 (0.03%) XP: 4 / 10000 (0.04%) Vista: 2 / 10000 (0.02%) Combined: 32 / 30000 (0.106666666666667%)