int ans = 0;
while (ans == 0) 
{
     for (int i=0; i<3; i++) 
     {
          while ((r = rand5()) == 3){};
          ans += (r < 3) >> i
     }
}

def rand5():
    return random.randint(1,5)    #return random integers from 1 to 5

def rand7():
    rand = rand5()+rand5()-1
    if rand > 7:                  #if numbers > 7, call rand7() again
        return rand7()
    print rand%7 + 1

我想这将是最简单的解决方案，但到处都有人建议5*rand5() + rand5() - 5，如http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/generate-integer-from-1-to-7-with-equal-probability/。 有人能解释一下rand5()+rand5()-1有什么问题吗

rand7() = (rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5()+rand5())%7+1

编辑:这并不奏效。误差约为千分之二(假设是完美的rand5)。桶得到:

value   Count  Error%
1       11158  -0.0035
2       11144  -0.0214
3       11144  -0.0214
4       11158  -0.0035
5       11172  +0.0144
6       11177  +0.0208
7       11172  +0.0144

通过转换到的和

n   Error%
10  +/- 1e-3,
12  +/- 1e-4,
14  +/- 1e-5,
16  +/- 1e-6,
...
28  +/- 3e-11

似乎每增加2就增加一个数量级

BTW:上面的误差表不是通过采样产生的，而是通过以下递归关系产生的:

P [x,n]是给定n次调用rand5，输出=x可能发生的次数。

  p[1,1] ... p[5,1] = 1
  p[6,1] ... p[7,1] = 0

  p[1,n] = p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1]
  p[2,n] = p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1]
  p[3,n] = p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1]
  p[4,n] = p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1] + p[6,n-1]
  p[5,n] = p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1] + p[7,n-1]
  p[6,n] = p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1] + p[1,n-1]
  p[7,n] = p[6,n-1] + p[5,n-1] + p[4,n-1] + p[3,n-1] + p[2,n-1]

下面使用随机数发生器在{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}上产生均匀分布，在{1,2,3,4,5}上产生均匀分布。代码很混乱，但逻辑很清晰。

public static int random_7(Random rg) {
    int returnValue = 0;
    while (returnValue == 0) {
        for (int i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
            returnValue = (returnValue << 1) + SimulateFairCoin(rg);
        }
    }
    return returnValue;
}

private static int SimulateFairCoin(Random rg) {
    while (true) {
        int flipOne = random_5_mod_2(rg);
        int flipTwo = random_5_mod_2(rg);

        if (flipOne == 0 && flipTwo == 1) {
            return 0;
        }
        else if (flipOne == 1 && flipTwo == 0) {
            return 1;
        }
    }
}

private static int random_5_mod_2(Random rg) {
    return random_5(rg) % 2;
}

private static int random_5(Random rg) {
    return rg.Next(5) + 1;
}    

int ans = 0;
while (ans == 0) 
{
     for (int i=0; i<3; i++) 
     {
          while ((r = rand5()) == 3){};
          ans += (r < 3) >> i
     }
}

这相当于Adam Rosenfield的解决方案，但对一些读者来说可能更清楚一些。它假设rand5()是一个函数，返回1到5范围内的统计随机整数。

int rand7()
{
    int vals[5][5] = {
        { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 },
        { 6, 7, 1, 2, 3 },
        { 4, 5, 6, 7, 1 },
        { 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 },
        { 7, 0, 0, 0, 0 }
    };

    int result = 0;
    while (result == 0)
    {
        int i = rand5();
        int j = rand5();
        result = vals[i-1][j-1];
    }
    return result;
}

How does it work? Think of it like this: imagine printing out this double-dimension array on paper, tacking it up to a dart board and randomly throwing darts at it. If you hit a non-zero value, it's a statistically random value between 1 and 7, since there are an equal number of non-zero values to choose from. If you hit a zero, just keep throwing the dart until you hit a non-zero. That's what this code is doing: the i and j indexes randomly select a location on the dart board, and if we don't get a good result, we keep throwing darts.

就像亚当说的，在最坏的情况下，它可以一直运行下去，但从统计上看，最坏的情况永远不会发生。：）