Here's a solution that fits entirely within integers and is within about 4% of optimal (i.e. uses 1.26 random numbers in {0..4} for every one in {0..6}). The code's in Scala, but the math should be reasonably clear in any language: you take advantage of the fact that 7^9 + 7^8 is very close to 5^11. So you pick an 11 digit number in base 5, and then interpret it as a 9 digit number in base 7 if it's in range (giving 9 base 7 numbers), or as an 8 digit number if it's over the 9 digit number, etc.:

abstract class RNG {
  def apply(): Int
}

class Random5 extends RNG {
  val rng = new scala.util.Random
  var count = 0
  def apply() = { count += 1 ; rng.nextInt(5) }
}

class FiveSevener(five: RNG) {
  val sevens = new Array[Int](9)
  var nsevens = 0
  val to9 = 40353607;
  val to8 = 5764801;
  val to7 = 823543;
  def loadSevens(value: Int, count: Int) {
    nsevens = 0;
    var remaining = value;
    while (nsevens < count) {
      sevens(nsevens) = remaining % 7
      remaining /= 7
      nsevens += 1
    }
  }
  def loadSevens {
    var fivepow11 = 0;
    var i=0
    while (i<11) { i+=1 ; fivepow11 = five() + fivepow11*5 }
    if (fivepow11 < to9) { loadSevens(fivepow11 , 9) ; return }
    fivepow11 -= to9
    if (fivepow11 < to8) { loadSevens(fivepow11 , 8) ; return }
    fivepow11 -= to8
    if (fivepow11 < 3*to7) loadSevens(fivepow11 % to7 , 7)
    else loadSevens
  }
  def apply() = {
    if (nsevens==0) loadSevens
    nsevens -= 1
    sevens(nsevens)
  }
}

如果你将一个测试粘贴到解释器中(实际上是REPL)，你会得到:

scala> val five = new Random5
five: Random5 = Random5@e9c592

scala> val seven = new FiveSevener(five)
seven: FiveSevener = FiveSevener@143c423

scala> val counts = new Array[Int](7)
counts: Array[Int] = Array(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)

scala> var i=0 ; while (i < 100000000) { counts( seven() ) += 1 ; i += 1 }
i: Int = 100000000

scala> counts
res0: Array[Int] = Array(14280662, 14293012, 14281286, 14284836, 14287188,
14289332, 14283684)

scala> five.count
res1: Int = 125902876

分布很好，很平坦(在每个箱子中，10^8的1/7大约在10k范围内，就像预期的近似高斯分布一样)。

PHP解决方案

<?php
function random_5(){
    return rand(1,5);
}


function random_7(){
 $total = 0;

    for($i=0;$i<7;$i++){
        $total += random_5();
    }

    return ($total%7)+1; 
}

echo random_7();
?>

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 

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

这个表达式足以得到1 - 7之间的随机整数

int j = ( rand5()*2 + 4 ) % 7 + 1;

这个解决方案受到了Rob McAfee的启发。 然而，它不需要循环，结果是一个均匀分布:

// Returns 1-5
var rnd5 = function(){
   return parseInt(Math.random() * 5, 10) + 1;
}
// Helper
var lastEdge = 0;
// Returns 1-7
var rnd7 = function () {
  var map = [
     [ 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 ]
  ];
  var result = map[rnd5() - 1][rnd5() - 1];
  if (result > 0) {
    return result;
  }
  lastEdge++;
  if (lastEdge > 7 ) {
    lastEdge = 1;
  }
  return lastEdge;
};

// Test the a uniform distribution
results = {}; for(i=0; i < 700000;i++) { var rand = rnd7(); results[rand] = results[rand] ? results[rand] + 1 : 1;} 
console.log(results)

结果:[1:99560,2:99932,3:100355,4:100262,5:99603,6:100062,7:100226]

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