How can I generate random numbers from 0 to 1000000?
I already tried the code below, but it still gives me numbers from 0 to 32767 (RAND_MAX):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
int main(){
int i,x;
srand(time(NULL));
for(i=0; i<10000; i++){
int x = rand() % 10000000 + 1;
printf("%d\n",x);
}
return 0;
}
[Edit] The initial answer was for 0 to 1,000,000. I now see it should be 0 to 10,000,000.
As rand() will give an answer of at least 15 bits, call rand() multiple times, shift by 15 and XOR the results. Finally mod by 10,000,001.
unsigned long x;
x = rand();
x <<= 15;
x ^= rand();
x %= 10000001;
The distribution is very flat, but does introduce a very small bias. After 32768*32768 iterations, each value of x 0 to 10,000,000 to occur about 107.37 times. Instead they range from 107 to 108 times.
Combining multiple rand() call results with +, * or | will cause a significant bias in the distribution of the results.
[Edit]
RAND_MAX is 32767 (0x7FFF) for OP's platform. The C spec says "value of the RAND_MAX macro shall be at least 32767". Because RAND_MAX may be longer than 15 bits, it is important to use the ^ operator above rather than | for this code when used on other platforms.
Calculate with % 1000001 if you want numbers between 0 and 1000000.
Also RAND_MAX is conly guaranteed to be at least 32767
int main(){
int i, x;
srand(time(NULL));
for(i=0; i<10000; i++){
x = (rand() * rand()) % 1000001;
printf("%d\n",x);
}
return 0;
}
Use this function, it will give you random number between two number (min and max) :
unsigned long int my_rand (unsigned long int Min, unsigned long int Max)
{
static int first = 0;
if (first == 0)
{
srand (time (NULL)); //initialize generator of random number
first = 1;
}
return ((unsigned long int)(rand() * (Max+1 - Min) / RAND_MAX + Min));
}
Related
I have a function that returns the length of a number by dividing it by 10 until it is less than 1 and greater than 0.
Ex.
12345 => 5
83 => 2
The issue is that 999999999999999s length should be 15 but my function returns 16. The function works fine for everything else...
Ex.
123456789123456 => 15
C code
#include <cs50.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int find_num_len(float num);
int counter = 0;
int main(void) {
long long int cc_num;
do {
cc_num = get_long_long("Number:");
}
while( cc_num < 0);
find_num_len(cc_num);
}
int find_num_len(float num) {
if (num > 0 && num < 1) {
printf("%i\n", counter);
return counter;
}
counter ++;
find_num_len(num/10);
return 0;
}
You're converting long long int to float unnecessarily. The mantissa of IEEE-754 32-bit float is 24 bits. And 2^24 = 16777216, which is the maximum possible number that can be represented with guaranteed precision.
This is one way to do it:
#include <stdio.h>
int find_num_len(long long int num) {
return num >= 10 ? 1 + find_num_len(num / 10) : 1;
}
int main(void) {
printf("%d\n", find_num_len(999999999999999));
return 0;
}
Or if you want to avoid the recursion:
int find_num_len(long long int num) {
int count = 1;
while (num >= 10) {
num = num / 10;
count++;
}
return count;
}
Probably a rounding error. The first integer that can’t be represented accurately by float is 2^24, approx 16 million which is way smaller than 15 9’s in a row.
Try using double which can go as high as 2^54; (from memory, best to check the ieee 754 spec to verify) which can represent Ints as high as ~1e16.
Or - compute the log10 of the number, add one, then truncate.
Len = floor (log10(number) + 1)
I am making a library management in C for practice. Now, in studentEntry I need to generate a long int studentID in which every digit is non-zero. So, I am using this function:
long int generateStudentID(){
srand(time(NULL));
long int n = 0;
do
{
n = rand() % 10;
}while(n == 0);
int i;
for(i = 1; i < 10; i++)
{
n *= 10;
n += rand() % 10;
}
if(n < 0)
n = n * (-1); //StudentID will be positive
return n;
}
output
Name : khushit
phone No. : 987546321
active : 1
login : 0
StudentID : 2038393052
Wanted to add another student?(y/n)
I wanted to remove all zeros from it. Moreover, when I run the program the first time the random number will be the same as above, and second time random number is same as past runs like e.g:-
program run 1
StudentID : 2038393052
StudentID : 3436731238
program run 2
StudentID : 2038393052
StudentID : 3436731238
What do I need to fix these problems?
You can either do as gchen suggested and run a small loop that continues until the result is not zero (just like you did for the first digit) or accept a small bias and use rand() % 9 + 1.
The problem with the similar sequences has its reason with the coarse resolution of time(). If you run the second call of the function to fast after the first you get the same seed. You might read this description as proposed by user3386109 in the comments.
A nine-digit student ID with no zeros in the number can be generated by:
long generateStudentID(void)
{
long n = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < 9; i++)
n = n * 10 + (rand() % 9) + 1;
return n;
}
This generates a random digit between 1 and 9 by generating a digit between 0 and 8 with (rand() % 9) and adding 1. There's no need to for loops to avoid zeros.
Note that this does not call srand() — you should only call srand() once in a given program (under normal circumstances). Since a long must be at least 32 bits and a 9-digit number only requires 30 bits, there cannot be overflow to worry about.
It's possible to argue that the result is slightly biassed in favour of smaller digits. You could use a function call to eliminate that bias:
int unbiassed_random_int(int max)
{
int limit = RAND_MAX - RAND_MAX % max;
int value;
while ((value = rand()) >= limit)
;
return value % max;
}
If RAND_MAX is 32767 and max is 9, RAND_MAX % 9 is 7. If you don't ignore the values from 32760 upwards, you are more likely to get a digit in the range 0..7 than you are to get an 8 — there are 3642 ways to each of 0..7 and only 3641 ways to get 8. The difference is not large; it is smaller if RAND_MAX is bigger. For the purposes on hand, such refinement is not necessary.
Slightly modify the order of your original function should perform the trick. Instead of removing 0s, just do not add 0s.
long int generateStudentID(){
srand(time(NULL));
long int n = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
long int m = 0;
do
{
m = rand() % 10;
}while(m == 0);
n *= 10;
n += m;
}
//Not needed as n won't be negative
//if(n < 0)
//n = n * (-1); //StudentID will be positive
return n;
}
I'm trying to generate 12 digit random numbers in C, but it's always generating 10 digit numbers.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
void main()
{
srand(time(NULL));
long r = rand();
r = r*100;
printf("%ld",r);
}
rand() returns an int value in the range of [0...RAND_MAX]
Based on the C spec, RAND_MAX >= 32767 and RAND_MAX <= INT_MAX.
Call rand() multiple times to create a wide value
unsigned long long rand_atleast12digit(void) {
unsigned long long r = rand();
#if RAND_MAX >= 999999999999
#elif RAND_MAX >= 999999
r *= RAND_MAX + 1ull;
r += rand();
#else
r *= RAND_MAX + 1ull;
r += rand();
r *= RAND_MAX + 1ull;
r += rand();
#endif
return r;
}
The above returns a number if the range of 0 to at least 999,999,999,999. To reduce that to only that range, code could use return r % 1000000000000;.
Using % likely does not create an balanced distribution of random numbers. Other posts address details of how to cope with that like this good one incorporated as follows.
#if RAND_MAX >= 999999999999
#define R12DIGIT_DIVISOR (RAND_MAX/1000000000000)
#elif RAND_MAX >= 999999
#define RAND_MAX_P1 (RAND_MAX+1LLU)
#define R12DIGIT_DIVISOR ((RAND_MAX_P1*RAND_MAX_P1-1)/1000000000000)
#else
#define RAND_MAX_P1 (RAND_MAX+1LLU)
#define R12DIGIT_DIVISOR ((RAND_MAX_P1*RAND_MAX_P1*RAND_MAX_P1-1)/1000000000000)
#endif
unsigned long long rand_12digit(void) {
unsigned long long retval;
do {
retval = rand_atleast12digit() / R12DIGIT_DIVISOR;
} while (retval == 1000000000000);
return retval;
}
Note that the quality of rand() is not well defined, so repeated calls may not provide high quality results.
OP's code fails if long is 32-bit as it lacks range for a 12 decimal digit values. #Michael Walz
If long is wide enough, *100 will always make the least 2 decimal digits 00 - not very random. #Alexei Levenkov
long r = rand();
r = r*100;
The result of rand is int, which means you can't get a 12 digit number directly from it.
If you need value that is always 12 digits you need to make sure values fit in particular range.
Sample below assumes that you need just some of the numbers to be 12 digits - you just need 8 extra bits - so shifting and OR'ing results would produce number in 0x7fffffffff-0 range that would often result up to 12 digit output when printed as decimal:
r = rand();
r = (r << 8) | rand();
PS: Make sure the variable that will store the result is big enough to store the 12 digit number.
My simple way to generate random strings or numbers is :
static char *ws_generate_token(size_t length) {
static char charset[] = "1234567890"; // generate numbers only
//static char charset[] = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890"; to generate random string
char *randomString = NULL;
if (length) {
randomString = malloc(sizeof(char) * (length + 1));
if (randomString) {
for (int n = 0; n < length; n++) {
int key = rand() % (int)(sizeof(charset) -1);
randomString[n] = charset[key];
}
randomString[length] = '\0';
}
}
return randomString;
}
Explain the code
Create an array of chars which will contains (numbers, alphabets ...etc)
Generate a random number between [0, array length], let's name it X.
Get the character at random X position in the array of chars.
finally, add this character to the sequence of strings (or numbers) you want to have in return.
How to use it ?
#define TOKEN_LENGTH 12
char *token;
token = ws_generate_token(TOKEN_LENGTH);
conversion from string to int
int token_int = atol(token);
dont forget !
free(token); // free the memory when you finish
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main()
{
int i, n;
time_t t;
n = 5;
/* Intializes random number generator int range */
srand((unsigned) time(&t));
/* Print 5 random numbers from 50 to back
for( i = 0 ; i < n ; i++ )
{
printf("%d\n", rand() % 50);
}
return(0);
}
unsigned const number = minimum + (rand() % (maximum - minimum + 1))
I know how to (easily) generate a random number within a range such as from 0 to 100. But what about a random number from the full range of int (assume sizeof(int) == 4), that is from INT_MIN to INT_MAX, both inclusive?
I don't need this for cryptography or the like, but a approximately uniform distribution would be nice, and I need a lot of those numbers.
The approach I'm currently using is to generate 4 random numbers in the range from 0 to 255 (inclusive) and do some messy casting and bit manipulations. I wonder whether there's a better way.
On my system RAND_MAX is 32767 which is 15 bits. So for a 32-bit unsigned just call three times and shift, or, mask etc.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
int main(void){
unsigned rando, i;
srand((unsigned)time(NULL));
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
rando = ((unsigned)rand() << 17) | ((unsigned)rand() << 2) | ((unsigned)rand() & 3);
printf("%u\n", rando);
}
return 0;
}
Program output:
3294784390
3748022412
4088204778
For reference I'm adding what I've been using:
int random_int(void) {
assert(sizeof(unsigned int) == sizeof(int));
unsigned int accum = 0;
size_t i = 0;
for (; i < sizeof(int); ++i) {
i <<= 8;
i |= rand() & 0x100;
}
// Attention: Implementation defined!
return (int) accum;
}
But I like Weather Vane's solution better because it uses fewer rand() calls and thus makes more use of the (hopefully good) distribution generated by it.
We should be able to do something that works no matter what the range of rand() or what size result we're looking for just by accumulating enough bits to fill a given type:
// can be any unsigned type.
typedef uint32_t uint_type;
#define RAND_UINT_MAX ((uint_type) -1)
uint_type rand_uint(void)
{
// these are all constant and factor is likely a power of two.
// therefore, the compiler has enough information to unroll
// the loop and can use an immediate form shl in-place of mul.
uint_type factor = (uint_type) RAND_MAX + 1;
uint_type factor_to_k = 1;
uint_type cutoff = factor ? RAND_UINT_MAX / factor : 0;
uint_type result = 0;
while ( 1 ) {
result += rand() * factor_to_k;
if (factor_to_k <= cutoff)
factor_to_k *= factor;
else
return result;
}
}
Note: Makes the minimum number of calls to rand() necessary to populate all bits.
Let's verify this gives a uniform distribution.
At this point we could just cast the result of rand_uint() to type int and be done, but it's more useful to get output in a specified range. The problem is: How do we reach INT_MAX when the operands are of type int?
Well... We can't. We'll need to use a type with greater range:
int uniform_int_distribution(int min, int max)
{
// [0,1) -> [min,max]
double canonical = rand_uint() / (RAND_UINT_MAX + 1.0);
return floor(canonical * (1.0 + max - min) + min);
}
As a final note, it may be worthwhile to implement the random function in terms of type double instead, i.e., accumulate enough bits for DBL_MANT_DIG and return a result in the range [0,1). In fact this is what std::generate_canonical does.
I need generate random 64-bit unsigned integers using C. I mean, the range should be 0 to 18446744073709551615. RAND_MAX is 1073741823.
I found some solutions in the links which might be possible duplicates but the answers mostly concatenates some rand() results or making some incremental arithmetic operations. So results are always 18 digits or 20 digits. I also want outcomes like 5, 11, 33387, not just 3771778641802345472.
By the way, I really don't have so much experience with the C but any approach, code samples and idea could be beneficial.
Concerning "So results are always 18 digits or 20 digits."
See #Thomas comment. If you generate random numbers long enough, code will create ones like 5, 11 and 33387. If code generates 1,000,000,000 numbers/second, it may take a year as very small numbers < 100,000 are so rare amongst all 64-bit numbers.
rand() simple returns random bits. A simplistic method pulls 1 bit at a time
uint64_t rand_uint64_slow(void) {
uint64_t r = 0;
for (int i=0; i<64; i++) {
r = r*2 + rand()%2;
}
return r;
}
Assuming RAND_MAX is some power of 2 - 1 as in OP's case 1073741823 == 0x3FFFFFFF, take advantage that 30 at least 15 bits are generated each time. The following code will call rand() 5 3 times - a tad wasteful. Instead bits shifted out could be saved for the next random number, but that brings in other issues. Leave that for another day.
uint64_t rand_uint64(void) {
uint64_t r = 0;
for (int i=0; i<64; i += 15 /*30*/) {
r = r*((uint64_t)RAND_MAX + 1) + rand();
}
return r;
}
A portable loop count method avoids the 15 /*30*/ - But see 2020 edit below.
#if RAND_MAX/256 >= 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
#define LOOP_COUNT 1
#elif RAND_MAX/256 >= 0xFFFFFF
#define LOOP_COUNT 2
#elif RAND_MAX/256 >= 0x3FFFF
#define LOOP_COUNT 3
#elif RAND_MAX/256 >= 0x1FF
#define LOOP_COUNT 4
#else
#define LOOP_COUNT 5
#endif
uint64_t rand_uint64(void) {
uint64_t r = 0;
for (int i=LOOP_COUNT; i > 0; i--) {
r = r*(RAND_MAX + (uint64_t)1) + rand();
}
return r;
}
The autocorrelation effects commented here are caused by a weak rand(). C does not specify a particular method of random number generation. The above relies on rand() - or whatever base random function employed - being good.
If rand() is sub-par, then code should use other generators. Yet one can still use this approach to build up larger random numbers.
[Edit 2020]
Hallvard B. Furuseth provides as nice way to determine the number of bits in RAND_MAX when it is a Mersenne Number - a power of 2 minus 1.
#define IMAX_BITS(m) ((m)/((m)%255+1) / 255%255*8 + 7-86/((m)%255+12))
#define RAND_MAX_WIDTH IMAX_BITS(RAND_MAX)
_Static_assert((RAND_MAX & (RAND_MAX + 1u)) == 0, "RAND_MAX not a Mersenne number");
uint64_t rand64(void) {
uint64_t r = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < 64; i += RAND_MAX_WIDTH) {
r <<= RAND_MAX_WIDTH;
r ^= (unsigned) rand();
}
return r;
}
If you don't need cryptographically secure pseudo random numbers, I would suggest using MT19937-64. It is a 64 bit version of Mersenne Twister PRNG.
Please, do not combine rand() outputs and do not build upon other tricks. Use existing implementation:
http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt64.html
Iff you have a sufficiently good source of random bytes (like, say, /dev/random or /dev/urandom on a linux machine), you can simply consume 8 bytes from that source and concatenate them. If they are independent and have a linear distribution, you're set.
If you don't, you MAY get away by doing the same, but there is likely to be some artefacts in your pseudo-random generator that gives a toe-hold for all sorts of hi-jinx.
Example code assuming we have an open binary FILE *source:
/* Implementation #1, slightly more elegant than looping yourself */
uint64_t 64bitrandom()
{
uint64_t rv;
size_t count;
do {
count = fread(&rv, sizeof(rv), 1, source);
} while (count != 1);
return rv;
}
/* Implementation #2 */
uint64_t 64bitrandom()
{
uint64_t rv = 0;
int c;
for (i=0; i < sizeof(rv); i++) {
do {
c = fgetc(source)
} while (c < 0);
rv = (rv << 8) | (c & 0xff);
}
return rv;
}
If you replace "read random bytes from a randomness device" with "get bytes from a function call", all you have to do is to adjust the shifts in method #2.
You're vastly more likely to get a "number with many digits" than one with "small number of digits" (of all the numbers between 0 and 2 ** 64, roughly 95% have 19 or more decimal digits, so really that is what you will mostly get.
If you are willing to use a repetitive pseudo random sequence and you can deal with a bunch of values that will never happen (like even numbers? ... don't use just the low bits), an LCG or MCG are simple solutions. Wikipedia: Linear congruential generator can get you started (there are several more types including the commonly used Wikipedia: Mersenne Twister). And this site can generate a couple prime numbers for the modulus and the multiplier below. (caveat: this sequence will be guessable and thus it is NOT secure)
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>
uint64_t
mcg64(void)
{
static uint64_t i = 1;
return (i = (164603309694725029ull * i) % 14738995463583502973ull);
}
int
main(int ac, char * av[])
{
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
printf("%016p\n", mcg64());
}
I have tried this code here and it seems to work fine there.
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <math.h>
int main(){
srand(time(NULL));
int a = rand();
int b = rand();
int c = rand();
int d = rand();
long e = (long)a*b;
e = abs(e);
long f = (long)c*d;
f = abs(f);
long long answer = (long long)e*f;
printf("value %lld",answer);
return 0;
}
I ran a few iterations and i get the following outputs :
value 1869044101095834648
value 2104046041914393000
value 1587782446298476296
value 604955295827516250
value 41152208336759610
value 57792837533816000
If you have 32 or 16-bit random value - generate 2 or 4 randoms and combine them to one 64-bit with << and |.
uint64_t rand_uint64(void) {
// Assuming RAND_MAX is 2^31.
uint64_t r = rand();
r = r<<30 | rand();
r = r<<30 | rand();
return r;
}
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
unsigned long long int randomize(unsigned long long int uint_64);
int main(void)
{
srand(time(0));
unsigned long long int random_number = randomize(18446744073709551615);
printf("%llu\n",random_number);
random_number = randomize(123);
printf("%llu\n",random_number);
return 0;
}
unsigned long long int randomize(unsigned long long int uint_64)
{
char buffer[100] , data[100] , tmp[2];
//convert llu to string,store in buffer
sprintf(buffer, "%llu", uint_64);
//store buffer length
size_t len = strlen(buffer);
//x : store converted char to int, rand_num : random number , index of data array
int x , rand_num , index = 0;
//condition that prevents the program from generating number that is bigger input value
bool Condition = 0;
//iterate over buffer array
for( int n = 0 ; n < len ; n++ )
{
//store the first character of buffer
tmp[0] = buffer[n];
tmp[1] = '\0';
//convert it to integer,store in x
x = atoi(tmp);
if( n == 0 )
{
//if first iteration,rand_num must be less than or equal to x
rand_num = rand() % ( x + 1 );
//if generated random number does not equal to x,condition is true
if( rand_num != x )
Condition = 1;
//convert character that corrosponds to integer to integer and store it in data array;increment index
data[index] = rand_num + '0';
index++;
}
//if not first iteration,do the following
else
{
if( Condition )
{
rand_num = rand() % ( 10 );
data[index] = rand_num + '0';
index++;
}
else
{
rand_num = rand() % ( x + 1 );
if( rand_num != x )
Condition = 1;
data[index] = rand_num + '0';
index++;
}
}
}
data[index] = '\0';
char *ptr ;
//convert the data array to unsigned long long int
unsigned long long int ret = _strtoui64(data,&ptr,10);
return ret;
}