What is the use of numpy.random.seed() Does it make any difference?
<p>I have a dataset named "admissions". </p>

<p>I am trying to carry out holdout validation on a simple dataset. In order to carry out permutation on the index of the dataset, I use the following command:</p>

<pre><code>import numpy as np
np.random.permutation(admissions.index)
</code></pre>

<p>Do I need to use <code>np.random.seed()</code> before the permutation? If so, then why and what does the number in <code>np.random.seed(number)</code>represent?</p>