MATLAB: Set the state for the random number generator

MATLABrandom number generator

For the function "randn", one can use
randn('state',100);
to set the state.
How about the generator "*poissrnd*"?

Best Answer

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.
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