Question

I understand what set.seed() does and when I might use it, but I still have many questions about the function. Here are a few:

1. Is it possible to “reset” set.seed() to something “more random” if you have called set.seed() earlier in your session? Is that even necessary?
2. Is it possible to view the seed that R is currently using?
3. Is there a way to make set.seed() allow alphanumeric seeds, the way one can enter them at random.org (be sure you are in the advanced mode, and see “Part 3” of the form to see what I mean)?

Answer 1

Just for fun:

set.seed.alpha <- function(x) {
  require("digest")
  hexval <- paste0("0x",digest(x,"crc32"))
  intval <- type.convert(hexval) %% .Machine$integer.max
  set.seed(intval)
}

So you can do:

set.seed.alpha("hello world")

(in fact x can be any R object, not just an alphanumeric string)