[R] Drawing random numbers from Uniform distribution with infinite range

[Rui Barradas]

On 7/28/2025 5:00 PM, Daniel Lobo wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I want to draw a set of random number from Uniform distribution where
> Support is the entire Real line.
> 
> runif(4, min = -Inf, max = Inf)
> 
> However it produces all NAN
> 
> Could you please help with the right approach?
> 
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Hello,


What you are asking doesn't make sense.
The uniform distribution's PDF is

f(x;a, b) = 1/abs(b - a) if x in [a, b]
             0            otherwise

So what you have is 1/abs(Inf - -Inf) = 1/abs(Inf) = 0.

And the cumulative distribution function is even worse, it will give you 
the indeterminate Inf/Inf.
See the Wikipedia on the uniform distribution [1].


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_uniform_distribution