set the state for the random number generator

For the function "randn", one can use

randn('state',100);

to set the state.

How about the generator "*poissrnd*"?

[Molalign Adam Bogale]

how can control random number generated by poissrnd?

[Steven Lord]

Use the rng function.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

If you are using an older version of MATLAB, then setting the state for rand (rather than randn) will set the state for poissrnd as well.

However, if you are using a relatively new version of MATLAB, the preferred method is to set the random number stream via RandStream:

 stream = RandStream('mt19937ar','Seed',28);
 RandStream.setDefaultStream(stream);

where you should put some integer where I put "28".

You can read more in the help file for RandStream, or lots more detail here: http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/randstream.html.

I believe all the random number generators work off of the stream, but I am not 100% sure of that. I did verify that I got the same sequence of numbers from poissrnd after setting the seed like this.

[jack]

stream = RandStream('mt19937ar','Seed',28);

RandStream.setDefaultStream(stream);

For the matlab I used(R2010b), this works well. Thanks.