Choose random seed and save it

Question

I would like to choose a random seed for numpy.random and save it to a variable. I can set the seed using numpy.random.seed(seed=None) but how do you

Answer 1

If you want you can also save it in a json file and then unpack it and then use it again. Since numpy stuff can't be serialized you need to serialize it yourself but its not that bad:

One file:

import json
import numpy as np

def put_numpy_seed_in_json_dic(results):
    (rnd0,rnd1,rnd2,rnd3,rnd4) = np.random.get_state()
    rnd1 = [int(number) for number in rnd1]
    rand_seed = (rnd0,rnd1,rnd2,rnd3,rnd4)
    results['rand_seed'] = rand_seed
    return results

def get_numpy_seed(results):
    (rnd0,rnd1,rnd2,rnd3,rnd4) = results['rand_seed']
    rnd1 = [np.uint32(number) for number in rnd1]
    rand_seed = (rnd0,rnd1,rnd2,rnd3,rnd4)
    return rand_seed

then run it to save the seed:

import json
import numpy as np
import my_rand_lib as mr

results = {'rand_seed':None}
results = mr.put_numpy_seed_in_json_dic(results)

print np.random.rand(1)
print np.random.rand(1)
print np.random.rand(1)

fpath = './rand_seed_file'
with open(fpath,'w+') as f:
    json.dump(results,f)

print '... doing other stuff'

with open(fpath,'r+') as f:
    results2 = json.load(f)

print 'other ',np.random.rand(1)
print 'other ',np.random.rand(1)
print 'other ',np.random.rand(1)

print '... done doing stuff'

rand_seed = mr.get_numpy_seed(results2)
np.random.set_state(rand_seed)

print np.random.rand(1)
print np.random.rand(1)
print np.random.rand(1)

and if you don't want to generate a seed everytime you run it you can have:

import json
import numpy as np
import my_rand_lib as mr


fpath = './rand_seed_file'
with open(fpath,'r+') as f:
    results2 = json.load(f)

rand_seed = mr.get_numpy_seed(results2)
np.random.set_state(rand_seed)

print np.random.rand(1)
print np.random.rand(1)
print np.random.rand(1)

I tried this on a remote server and I always get matching random numbers:

[ 0.90741273]
[ 0.6861296]
[ 0.21714398]

not sure if this is interesting but this was the seed (which is a tuple):

{"rand_seed": ["MT19937", [3244492226, 4276548057, 571402114, 3235873143, 4078239958, 1440625038, 4042777784, 3400010150, 1164584760, 271139028, 1264217608, 1403324904, 234696259, 623484078, 3424719234, 3896351743, 1818071683, 3077380191, 2989066157, 3828180331, 2032001745, 1137603205, 1993713826, 873523654, 3267461254, 2964954176, 3217679339, 4079232021, 1182272168, 402998421, 968119626, 2151162455, 2550226639, 3522780791, 245256811, 2866158388, 587411937, 2836234133, 3485394274, 1767143488, 3772379711, 1244725495, 1061026769, 2544419920, 3963050848, 232749713, 2084368489, 1990090546, 2883903063, 174001222, 2569537698, 517341511, 2366955295, 1830324490, 2388090514, 1637855850, 1383101875, 2719629528, 885528387, 7941101, 2769663894, 2704541593, 3129289945, 2681434614, 3308402481, 2161196492, 2896442132, 1474561199, 156414990, 2934014108, 2740454316, 4029663532, 2903418479, 118978587, 3095335574, 1044532364, 2629619463, 623783821, 3172307947, 2539001597, 2020636966, 404303542, 373288588, 289388097, 1050356390, 1126919064, 474676333, 2156863001, 92975776, 1204572119, 1341956590, 4284155262, 3380981209, 1268302262, 835613316, 623125230, 1150083001, 3444902937, 2318349536, 2881496834, 393068269, 28626933, 2931354423, 2014174400, 4212996966, 3105086458, 74404022, 413795342, 3782258177, 3626466932, 1932129332, 3538419256, 943472124, 963175815, 4076955699, 52410025, 318657184, 839799912, 2150435130, 3187525421, 2124551508, 3930704180, 2375548757, 497820208, 422355274, 260159836, 3437157934, 1301403840, 4057357702, 3217300631, 2910194797, 1972036860, 624838554, 3418367281, 3823714808, 1342594222, 3874939587, 3578421466, 3997730187, 751930224, 801189513, 1225089722, 910752086, 1415351761, 4287089458, 224210780, 643596696, 1030838729, 1924676141, 2579935013, 32904138, 2486616018, 1665731347, 642496995, 577928776, 4119274366, 1438990597, 885648199, 2401966414, 1937630298, 2029522084, 3823943785, 1652388617, 242507028, 163957584, 197993457, 3003700508, 2357598705, 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3310205054, 2559493616, 3994237157, 2449530906, 1017478859, 2475414025, 260408932, 3882314025, 3169908095, 1431718224, 755730563, 4129813635, 482751982, 42657908, 2418940148, 2380660631, 3596648617, 2668040386, 3700947086, 1235361153, 4212839143, 2803192914, 679783840, 1396721631, 3549531060, 3714188947, 1582886984, 3930587164, 1787845200, 1878170563, 3998685888, 275016726, 1362149445, 1784854500, 3413367687, 999979145, 30464988, 1781846287, 2052179802, 614372595, 1795389478, 3837746383, 1716252322, 1496633789, 1913960414, 3824749341, 745150948, 2990885936, 3557188824, 1853716952, 226442384, 3881419361, 3877508921, 2125849259, 3725330620, 4249819850, 1866002740, 3954375926, 1263697298, 2359110923, 3704149399, 3915156522, 2720534920, 2240262865, 1298116022, 2430494738, 3106481019, 1118448263, 3386525375, 3850025930, 947096317, 2014058358, 2943385566, 1639655978, 824538918, 2893393554, 190010755, 918084027, 4197568458, 2308675470, 3969533604, 823650146, 3971685975, 3959021418, 2335451148, 3651109937, 3536101054, 2028026981, 1042621858, 2093418547, 3332527479, 345797902, 1962843497, 1651609280, 849683942, 701440541, 3001603849, 2547855201, 2847179356, 2686463194, 2556105058, 2957249371, 4122354156, 4095666057, 3269707747, 2075948426, 4189148196, 59188700, 1425136277, 4010662242, 403095998, 2435933607, 3254626634, 320429604, 921618676, 4179054005, 1590495757, 362965764, 3892792894, 4264771139, 300303781, 4194594842, 1773582295, 1792749320, 3114744569, 3059831369, 543108826, 605116437, 1206221920, 3763708911, 3474933214, 933590768, 4096747554, 2732890014, 1180321103, 3174872523, 2361419553, 303084740, 3438967187, 829657141, 3976738932, 3250508727, 2965752967, 2766618501, 2610047728, 3913791738, 2383381107, 2911412379, 2570048205, 1059652767, 1105153800, 258287599, 1366361775, 1043101709, 4136777479, 4002476750, 2242511114, 1937386895, 2318776696, 3919577988, 819932046, 2154232126, 2359937340, 1707529303, 1430709021, 57940224, 2463543918, 439698027, 2154236676, 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