select numbers based on different probabiltiies

I have an event that happens at a prbability of 1E-06. I want Matlab to return me 1 if that event happens and 0 otherwise. Rand gives me a number upto four decimal places. Could you folks help me come up with a solution.

Thank you

[Bruno Luong]

Rand gives me a number upto four decimal places

Nope RAND returns double, i.e., more than 15 significant decimals.

Don't be fool by what display on your screen and what is stored internally.

[messi]

Thanks for that quick response. Very basic question. How can I force matlab to output random number upto 6 or 7 significant digit.

Will this code work?

ran = rand;

if (rand<1E-05)

selec=1;

else

selec=0;

end

[Image Analyst]

Yes. But you don't need the ran=rand line if you're never going to use ran. To see more digits:

format longG

[Bruno Luong]

No this code returns 1 with 1e-5 probability chance, not 1e-6 as you have stated.

ran = rand;
if (rand<1E-05)
    selec=1;
else
    selec=0;
end

Answer 1

[Bruno Luong]

select = rand < 1e-6

Answer 2

[messi]

Thank you all.