(Random.value > 0.5f);

Hello everyone,
I would like to understand how this code works:

myBool=(Random.value > 0.5f);

Random.value create me a random float between 0 and 1, and I ask if the value is greater than 0.5.

Does this mean that a bool has a float value between 0 and 1, and that intermediate values are interpreted as 0 or 1??

 

No. All it's asking is 'is this expression true or false'.

Ergo, is this random value between 0 and 1 greater than 0.5? If yes, the boolean is true, otherwise it's false.

It's more or less the same as:

Code (CSharp):

1. bool myBool;
2.  
3. if (Random.value > 0.5f)
4. {
5.     myBool = true;
6. }

 

I understand what you want to tell me, except that I used it like that. And it works :

Test you will see.

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. bool myBool;
3.  
4. public void()
5. {
6.             myBool= (Random.value > 0.5f);
7.             if (myBool)
8.             {
9.              ...
10.             }
11.             else
12.             {
13.              ...
14.             }
15.  
16. }
17.  

 

Maybe it's used so much that the Devs integrated it.

 

What? No. Did you listen to me at all? It's just a C# thing.

Basically

boolean = (boolean expression)

 

A ok, I understand better, I don't know the boolean expression. As my code worked, I don't understand why, thanks

 

In short, the ">" sign is an operator that takes two numeric operands and returns a boolean value. So either true or false. This boolean value you simply assign to your boolean variable. Some people think that those operators somehow belong inside if statemens only. However those are just comparison operators and can be used anywhere a boolean value is required. You can think of operators like a special notation for methods. So this

Code (CSharp):

1. c = a > b

would be the same as this:

Code (CSharp):

1. c = IsGreaterThan(a, b)

This fictitious method "IsGreaterThan" would have a signature like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. public bool IsGreaterThan(float num1, float num2)

It returns true whenever the first number is greater than the second number. That's what the

>

operator does.

An if statement on the other hand just requires a boolean value and does not need to include any of those operators if you already have a boolean value. That's why if statements like this

Code (CSharp):

1. if (myBoolVariable == true)

are redundant. You could just do

Code (CSharp):

1. if (myBoolVariable)

instead.

In your specific case you assign a random boolean value to your variable. Random.value returns a uniform random number between 0 and 1. Since it's uniformly distributed, half of the time the value would be greater than 0.5 and half the time it would be below 0.5. So this expression "converts" all random values greater than 0.5 to "true" and any value smaller than (or equal to) 0.5 to "false".

I don't know how we can explain it any simpler . Maybe you want to look up some boolean algebra basics. Also look up comparison operators if you have trouble understanding them. Those are the most essential parts of pretty much any programming language

 

Thank you for the explanation, it's simple and effective.