>>Hi,
>>
>>I need to create an algorithm that will give me a number based on the current date. This does not have to be very sophisticated. As long as it a notch above the number of days from a certain date, it will do.
>>
>>Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
>
>Getting the difference in days from a certain date certainly seems the most simplest.
>
>I suppose that for some reason you want something more "random-looking"; you can use the difference in days as a seed value for a random number algorithm. That way, it should always produce the same value from the same date. However, being a function of the "hash" type, it is no longer guaranteed that different dates give different numbers; also, a related potential problem (or benefit, depending on your needs) is that you won't be able to calculate the original date from the hash value (the calculated value).
>
>To illustrate what I mean:
>
>

>ldReferenceDate = {^1900-01-01}
>ldSomeDate = {^2009-03-11} && I used today's date
>RAND(ldSomeDate - ldReferenceDate)
>? RAND()
>

>
>Note that because you are always providing the same original "seed value", the "sequence" of random numbers (in this case, a single random number) will always be the same.
>
>Change variable ldSomeDate to some other date - e.g., tomorrow's date - and you will get a different "random number", but once again, reproducible. Meaning that the same date will produce the same value.
>
>As an alternative, you might try to some research on "random sequence" algorithms, and do a similar calculation yourself.
>
>Update: To understand what is going on, note that the "random numbers" are really pseudo-random. Each "random" number is calculated on the basis of the previous number. To get a different sequence each time, you have to start your program with rand(-1). This initializes the random number generator with the system clock. While this is not truly random, the result looks like random numbers (for most purposes - not random enough for certain statistical appications), and you will get different results on each run. In this case, I assume you want to get the same results each time, but in a manner that is somewhat random-looking.

Hilmar,

You algorithm seems to be perfect for my need. Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.