What is Random.nextGaussian method in Java?

nextGaussian is an instance method of the Random class that is used to get a double value chosen from a Gaussian/Normal distribution with mean as 0.0 and standard deviation as 1.0.

What is Gaussian or Normal distribution?

The Gaussian distribution, also known as the Normal distribution, is a symmetric probability distribution centered on the mean, indicating that data near the mean occur more frequently than data far from it. The normal distribution will appear as a bell curve on a graph. The following example image shows what a bell curve looks like when plotted on a graph.

The Random class is defined in the java.util package. To import the Random class, check the following import statement.

import java.util.Random;

Syntax

public synchronized double nextGaussian()

Parameters

The method accepts no parameters.

Return value

This method returns the next pseudorandom taken from a Gaussian distribution.

Code

import java.util.Random;
public class Main{
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //create an object of the Random class
        Random random=new Random();
        for(int i=0;i < 5; i++){
            // Generate the pseudorandom Gaussian value
            double value=random.nextGaussian();
            //print the value
            System.out.println("Random Gaussian value: "+value);
        }
    }
}

Explanation

  • Line 1: We import the relevant packages.
  • Line 8: We create an object of the Random class.
  • Line 10: We define a for loop that runs the code block within it for five iterations.
  • Line 13: We generate the pseudorandom Gaussian value using the nextGaussian() method.
  • Line 16: We print the generated pseudorandom Gaussian value.

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