Ditto Ditto - the answer's quoted text is WRONG WRONG WRONG - or at least only partially correct/ very misleading! Gimme my point back! I happen to understand how this function works very well.

Check ms-help://MS.SQLCC.v9/MS.SQLSVR.v9.en/tsqlref9/html/363c84d6-b9fa-49ba-9a75-e44f27535ff6.htm "For one connection, if RAND() is called with a specified seed value, all subsequent calls of RAND() produce results based on the seeded RAND() call. For example, the following query will always return the same sequence of numbers."

So, is a particular RAND() deterministic without using a seed? IT DEPENDS on whether a PREVIOUS RAND() used a seed - so IT DEPENDS on definition of "deterministic"