Getting a random double value between -1 and 1

Question

I'm creating a Neural Network in Java and need to create a method to generate random weights initially.

I need to create a function that returns a random double value between -1 and 1 but not sure of the logic for doing this so any help would be most appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use the Random class's nextDouble() method.

Random rng = new Random();
// to get a double between -1 and 1
return rng.nextDouble() * 2 - 1; // rng.nextDouble() is between 0 and 1