How do I get the seed from a Random in Java?

Question

I am creating a deep clone for some object. The object contains a Random.

Is it good practice to retrieve the seed from the Random? If so, how? There isn't a Random.getSeed().

Answer 1

A much more simple way of getting a seed is to generate one and store that as the seed. I am using this method for a game and want to give the player the option to generate the exact same world if he wishes too. So first I create a Random object without a seed then let that one generate a random number and use that in another random object as the seed. Whenever the player want the seed of the level I have it stored somewhere. By default the game is still random.

    Random rand = new Random();     //Store a random seed     long seed = rand.nextLong();     //Set the Random object seed     rand.setSeed(seed);      //do random stuff...      //Wonder what the seed is to reproduce something?     System.out.println(seed);