简单的解决方案已经被很好地覆盖了:为一个random7结果取两个random5样本，如果结果超出了产生均匀分布的范围，就重新做一次。如果你的目标是减少对random5的调用次数，这是非常浪费的——对于每个random7输出，对random5的平均调用次数是2.38，而不是2，这是由于丢弃样本的数量。

你可以通过使用更多的random5输入一次生成多个random7输出来做得更好。对于使用31位整数计算的结果，最优结果是使用12次调用random5生成9个random7输出，平均每个输出调用1.34次。它是高效的，因为244140625个结果中只有2018983个需要废弃，或者不到1%。

Python演示:

def random5():
    return random.randint(1, 5)

def random7gen(n):
    count = 0
    while n > 0:
        samples = 6 * 7**9
        while samples >= 6 * 7**9:
            samples = 0
            for i in range(12):
                samples = samples * 5 + random5() - 1
                count += 1
        samples //= 6
        for outputs in range(9):
            yield samples % 7 + 1, count
            samples //= 7
            count = 0
            n -= 1
            if n == 0: break

>>> from collections import Counter
>>> Counter(x for x,i in random7gen(10000000))
Counter({2: 1430293, 4: 1429298, 1: 1428832, 7: 1428571, 3: 1428204, 5: 1428134, 6: 1426668})
>>> sum(i for x,i in random7gen(10000000)) / 10000000.0
1.344606

rand25() =5*(rand5()-1) + rand5()

rand7() { 
   while(true) {
       int r = rand25();
       if (r < 21) return r%3;         
   }
}

为什么这样做:循环永远运行的概率是0。

下面是一个利用c++ 11特性的答案

#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <ostream>
#include <random>

int main()
{
    std::random_device rd;
    unsigned long seed = rd();
    std::cout << "seed = " << seed << std::endl;

    std::mt19937 engine(seed);

    std::uniform_int_distribution<> dist(1, 5);
    auto rand5 = std::bind(dist, engine);

    const int n = 20;
    for (int i = 0; i != n; ++i)
    {
        std::cout << rand5() << " ";
    }
    std::cout << std::endl;

    // Use a lambda expression to define rand7
    auto rand7 = [&rand5]()->int
    {
        for (int result = 0; ; result = 0)
        {
            // Take advantage of the fact that
            // 5**6 = 15625 = 15624 + 1 = 7 * (2232) + 1.
            // So we only have to discard one out of every 15625 numbers generated.

            // Generate a 6-digit number in base 5
            for (int i = 0; i != 6; ++i)
            {
                result = 5 * result + (rand5() - 1);
            }

            // result is in the range [0, 15625)
            if (result == 15625 - 1)
            {
                // Discard this number
                continue;
            }

            // We now know that result is in the range [0, 15624), a range that can
            // be divided evenly into 7 buckets guaranteeing uniformity
            result /= 2232;
            return 1 + result;
        }
    };

    for (int i = 0; i != n; ++i)
    {
        std::cout << rand7() << " ";
    }
    std::cout << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

这个怎么样

rand5 () % + rand5 (2) + 2 (2) % + rand5 rand5 () (2) % + rand5 % + rand5 (2) 2

不确定这是均匀分布的。有什么建议吗?

这里是我的一般实现，在给定一个范围为[0,B-1]的均匀发生器的情况下，生成范围为[0,N-1]的均匀。

public class RandomUnif {

    public static final int BASE_NUMBER = 5;

    private static Random rand = new Random();

    /** given generator, returns uniform integer in the range 0.. BASE_NUMBER-1
    public static int randomBASE() {
        return rand.nextInt(BASE_NUMBER);
    }

    /** returns uniform integer in the range 0..n-1 using randomBASE() */
    public static int randomUnif(int n) {
        int rand, factor;
        if( n <= 1 ) return 0;
        else if( n == BASE_NUMBER ) return randomBASE();
        if( n < BASE_NUMBER ) {
            factor = BASE_NUMBER / n;
            do
                rand = randomBASE() / factor;
            while(rand >= n);
            return rand;
        } else {
            factor = (n - 1) / BASE_NUMBER + 1;
            do {
                rand = factor * randomBASE() + randomUnif(factor);
            } while(rand >= n);
            return rand;
        }
    }
}

不是特别高效，但一般和紧凑。对基生成器的均值调用:

 n  calls
 2  1.250 
 3  1.644 
 4  1.252 
 5  1.000 
 6  3.763 
 7  3.185 
 8  2.821 
 9  2.495 
10  2.250 
11  3.646 
12  3.316 
13  3.060 
14  2.853 
15  2.650 
16  2.814 
17  2.644 
18  2.502 
19  2.361 
20  2.248 
21  2.382 
22  2.277 
23  2.175 
24  2.082 
25  2.000 
26  5.472 
27  5.280 
28  5.119 
29  4.899 

这里允许作业题吗?

这个函数进行粗略的“以5为基数”的数学运算，生成0到6之间的数字。

function rnd7() {
    do {
        r1 = rnd5() - 1;
        do {
            r2=rnd5() - 1;
        } while (r2 > 1);
        result = r2 * 5 + r1;
    } while (result > 6);
    return result + 1;
}