title: "Reverse" statistics: generating data based on mean and standard deviation
body: <p>Having a dataset and calculating statistics from it is easy. How about the other way around?</p>
  
  <p>Let's say I know some variable has an average X, standard deviation Y and assume it has normal (Gaussian) distribution. What would be the best way to generate a "random" dataset (of arbitrary size) which will fit the distribution?</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: This kind of develops from <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3207272/random-values-with-non-uniform-distribution">this question</a>; I could make something based on that method, but I am wondering if there's a more efficient way to do it.</p>