How can you generate a random number in C++?

: How can you generate a random number in C++?
:
using rand() and its variants in the C++ header cstdlib or the C header stdlib.h

---

We'll be an army of theives
Of self-freed slaves
Of mild-mannered maids
We'll fight with whispers and blades
So get ready, a new day is dawning
- The New Wild West -- Jewel

Thanks for answering! Is there a way to set parameters within which the random number is generated?

rand() gives a float number. Use the integer modulo operator to get the interval you want:

rand() % x; /* gives a number from 0 to x-1. */

: rand() gives a float number. Use the integer modulo operator to get
: the interval you want:
:
: rand() % x; /* gives a number from 0 to x-1. */
:
:

You can see a discussion of easily generating random number in this FAQ:

http://www.givemefish.com/Downloads/Download_cppFAQ/Download_cppFAQ.php

Matt.

I got the interval to work, but every time I run a given program it uses the same random number; is there a way to make it a different number every time I run it?

: I got the interval to work, but every time I run a given program it
: uses the same random number; is there a way to make it a different
: number every time I run it?
:
You have to first seed the random generator, usually done with the current time.

...
#include <ctime>
#include <cstdlib>
using namespace std; // include the entire namespace
...
time_t curTime;
time(&curTime);
srand(curTime);
...

That'll get you the system time and let you seed rand() via srand() before actually calling rand() itself.

---

We'll be an army of theives
Of self-freed slaves
Of mild-mannered maids
We'll fight with whispers and blades
So get ready, a new day is dawning
- The New Wild West -- Jewel

It worked to change the number each time the program is used, but I don't quite understand why. I was wondering if you could explain it to me?

: It worked to change the number each time the program is used, but I
: don't quite understand why. I was wondering if you could explain it
: to me?
:

That works via the "current time" and therefore every time the time changes it sets the seeded value (where to begin) to be a different location with in the psuedo-random list. Thus when rand() is called it calls from somewhere else in the list of random values rather than starting at the beginning of the list each time.

---

We'll be an army of theives
Of self-freed slaves
Of mild-mannered maids
We'll fight with whispers and blades
So get ready, a new day is dawning
- The New Wild West -- Jewel

The philosophical explanation is that there is no such thing as random numbers. Everything in reality is deterministic.

For the programmer, this means that he has to fake it and make deterministic numbers appearing as random as possible. To do this, you can take the time and date from the PC, put those number values in some nonsense-algorithm which does a lot of calculations on them, until the time and date is beyond recognition. This becomes the so-called random number.

So when you are calling srand(), all you do is to give the C library functions the time/date needed for the above.