Random numbers within a speicified finite field

[mahm....@gmail.com]

I am trying to generate a matrix that contains randomly generated finite fields' elements.

Tried several approaches, basically working on this function 

I'll highlight to you what the problem actually is, ignoring the matrix part

sage : randint (1, 255)

(taken from http://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/reference/misc/sage/misc/prandom.html)

for a finite field

sage : k.<a> = GF(2^8)

I coerce it as follow 

sage : randNum = k (randint(1,255))

(taken from http://doc.sagemath.org/html/en/tutorial/tour_coercion.html)

but I find it produces to me elements in GF(2)

only 0,1 

How can I pull random numbers from any desired field ?

[Dima Pasechnik]

one should not think about elements of finite fields as "numbers"

Here is a way:

sage: F=GF(8)

sage: F.random_element()

0

sage: F.random_element()

z3^2

Anyhow, Sage has a dedicated function for your task:

sage: matrix.random(GF(8),4,2)

[z3^2 + z3 + 1             0]

[            0        z3 + 1]

[            0             0]

[       z3 + 1     z3^2 + z3]

[mahm....@gmail.com]

Thank you very much I wouldn't require any better answer than that. The literal manifestation of the word "On point" XD

Despite the fact I would need this int to field coercion in some point because I will be taking number as arguments in Command line.

I'll ask it later in a separate post if I can't work it out, that is once I get into it.