bdshuffle.md

A Note on the Bays–Durham Shuffle

The Bays–Durham shuffle extends a pseudorandom number generator's (PRNG) maximum cycle length by giving it a bigger state. Generally, for a size of tablesize, this maximum is at most the factorial of tablesize, which is about the number of ways to arrange a list of size tablesize.

The following describes the Bays–Durham shuffle with a size of tablesize. (C++'s shuffle_order_engine implements something similar to the shuffle described below.) For PRNGs that output 32- or 64-bit integers 0 or greater, a tablesize of 256, 512, or 1024 is suggested.

• To initialize, fill a list with as many numbers from the underlying PRNG as tablesize, then set k to another number from that PRNG.
• For each "random" number, take the entry at position (k % tablesize) in the list, where '%' is the remainder operator and positions start at 0, then set k to that entry, then replace the entry at that position with a new number from the underlying PRNG, then output k.

The following variant of the Bays–Durham shuffle was used in the Kybos PRNG by J. Baagøe:

• Initialize the table with random numbers (such as those from the underlying PRNG), then set k to the first entry of the table.
• For each "random" number, set v to the entry at position (k % tablesize) in the list, where '%' is the remainder operator and positions start at 0, then replace the entry at that position with v minus a new number from the underlying PRNG (using wraparound subtraction), then set k to the result, then output v.