Random number generator from 1 to 4

How it works

The range is closed. 1 counts. 4 counts. 0 does not. 5 does not. Fractions do not, unless you switched the tool into a decimal mode this query is not asking for. Four faces is the same size as a four-sided die. A widget on a page is usually a pseudorandom algorithm that is hard to guess by eye. That is enough to pick a team, a chore, or a player. It is the wrong instrument for a cryptographic key.

Inclusive bounds are the ordinary reading. If 4 never appears across a long session, the range is probably exclusive at the top, or the display is hiding the end. Check the settings before you blame luck. If 1 never appears, the floor may have been set to 2. Write the ends down: “1 through 4 inclusive.” That sentence is the whole specification.

Independent clicks may repeat. Two 3s in a row can be honest. A generator that secretly avoids the last value is no longer a uniform 1-to-4 draw; it is a mixer with a memory. If you need each value once, that is a shuffle of the four integers, then a take. Say which job you wanted before you argue about fairness.

Four faces, no extra numbers

A fair four-sided die, two fair coin flips mapped onto four labels, or a uniform integer in a range whose size is a multiple of four, then reduced without leftover bias, are all ways to land on one of four labels. A sloppy “take a big random number and remainder 4” can favor some residues if the source range is not a multiple of four. For a classroom picker you will not see that. For a protocol you should not ignore it. This page is the classroom picker: four labels, equal weight, inclusive ends.

People type the title with hyphens, the word from, or a spoken “one to four.” They want the same closed set. They do not want 1 to 5 with 5 discarded after the fact, and they do not want 0 to 3 unless they said so. Zero-based ranges are a programming habit. This query is one-based English.

Legal results: 1, 2, 3, 4. Illegal results for this query: 0, 5, negatives, and halves. Repeats: allowed on independent draws; forbidden only if you asked for a unique set. Fairness: each of the four integers should have the same chance on a given draw.

If 5 appears, you did not generate 1 to 4. You generated a different game and kept the old label.

One draw or a short list

One click, one integer. That is the default. A list of random numbers from 1 to 4 is the same range with a count. Decide whether repeats are allowed. Four unique values is just a shuffle of 1, 2, 3, 4. Twenty values with repeats is a stream. Do not use the shuffle when you wanted a stream and then complain that 2 showed up twice in the longer run. Do not use the stream when you wanted four unique tickets.

Clumps happen in a uniform stream. Three 1s in a short run can still be fair. Forcing the output to “look spread out” is a different rule. If the group needs to see the same result, keep the range, the count, and the output together. A screenshot of a local app with no bounds is not a record of a 1-to-4 draw.