Understanding the challege

The 2nd challenge is, of course, a bit more complicated. You want the user to specify the range of values for which they wish a number to be randomly taken from. So, let's say we have two variables randMin and randMax. And to put these into perspective, I'm going to use mathematical interval notation where a [ or ] means an inclusive integer, and ( or ) mean exclusive integers.

So, let's start with this code:

Math.floor(Math.random() * randMax);

This code above will generate a number from 0 to randMax. Let's say, for mathematics sake, that we are trying to get a number between 50 (randMin) and 100 (randMax). So, the range right now with those numbers would be [0,100).

But, what we need is from [50, 100]. So, if we think about it, we could just add in randMin to randMax. But, we can't do that within the floor statement because remember, Math.random() can go to 0 and anything times 0 is 0. If we typed out: Math.floor(Math.random() * (randMax + randMin)); we would have a range of [0,150) which is not what we want.

But, if we place randMin outside of the floor statement, we would get an interesting result:

Math.floor(Math.random() * randMax) + randMin;

Now, the range becomes [50,150) because the inside can go all the way to 0 but the outside will add in 50, and the max stays the same. Think of the outside now as the minimum range. So, we're getting closer.

What we now need to do is take away 50 from the top range. Well, we couldn't just subtract randMin from itself on the outside because that would be just adding 0 which gets us back to square one.

But, if we subtract it away from randMax on the inside, the inside can now go to a minimum of 0 and when you add 50 from the outside makes the minimum 50.

Math.floor(Math.random() * (randMax - randMin)) + randMin;

And when you take a maximum of 49 on the inside (which is the floored value 0.9999 * 100 - 50) and add that to the minimum on the outside, we get 99, which means the range is now from [50, 100).

The final step to make that last number inclusive is the exact same final step as the first challenge: just add a 1. It is important where you place the 1 here, because we're dealing with two dynamic numbers instead of just one. The 1 must go inside the floor statement with the randMax and randMin variables.

So, the final solution to getting a random number between two values is:

Math.floor(Math.random() * (randMax - randMin + 1)) + randMin;

If you want to test this out, run your web console (or create a test HTML page) and type this in:

var randMin = parseInt(prompt("Minimum number:"));
var randMax = parseInt(prompt("Maximum number:"));
console.log(Math.floor(Math.random() * (randMax - randMin + 1)) + randMin);
//Or:
//alert(Math.floor(Math.random() * (randMax - randMin + 1)) + randMin);

I know this is rather lengthy, but as I said, I tend to try to be as thorough as possible in my explanations. I hope that helps!

The absolute best way to learn this concept is to try to re-create this in your own way, and play around with all of the code! Trial and Error leads to awesomeness!

You are correct! I mistyped what I wrote. I'll change that.

You are very welcome, Deborah! That's also why I wrote it in so much detail, so that you can follow along with it later. :) Happy Coding!