what does this code represents? and why rand() has no value between parentheses?

function [outcome]=customer
x=rand() ;
if x <= 0.2
    outcome = 1 ;
else
    outcome = 0;
end

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

It defines a function which returns either 1 or 0, where 1 has ~=20% probability. Simpler code:

customer = @()+(rand(1)<=0.2);

"why rand() has no value between parentheses?"

Did you read the rand documentation? It explains the different rand syntaxes.

[william Smith]

Thank you!

Answer 2

[James Tursa]

rand() is the same as rand without the parentheses ... they both simply call the rand function with no input arguments. The behavior of rand is that when called with no input arguments, it returns a scalar.

This function code simply gets a random number between 0 and 1. If it is less than or equal to 0.2, the outcome is assigned a value of 1. Otherwise the outcome is assigned a value of 0. The value of outcome is returned by the function.

[william Smith]

Thank you!