random number 1 to 4Number 1 to 4

Pick a random number between 1 and 4

Four is the size of a lot of everyday sets: four answers on a multiple-choice quiz, four seasons, four players around a card table, four suits in a deck. The range is set to 1 through 4 when the page loads. Press Generate and each number has a 25% chance, exactly one in four.

Four-way choices

• Quiz questions. Make an answer key with no pattern for students to spot: map 1 to 4 onto A, B, C and D, and generate one per question.
• Who deals, who starts. Number the four players clockwise and pick one.
• Seasons and suits. Spring, summer, fall, winter; or clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades. A random theme for a party, a drawing prompt or a card trick.
• Instead of a four-sided die. The odds match a d4, and nothing rolls off the table.

Random answer keys

Teachers who write multiple-choice tests by hand often lean on B and C without noticing, and students learn to guess the middle. Generating the position of the correct answer fixes that. Pick 10 or 20 numbers at once, keep No repeats off (several answers in a row can share a letter) and copy the list. If you need each letter used equally often, generate within blocks instead: ask for 5 numbers with No repeats on, and since only four exist you get each letter exactly once, in a shuffled order, for every block of four questions.

Want a real die on screen? The d4 roller shows a four-sided die and works with up to ten at once.