Re: Using C's rand() to generate a random number

On Jul 11, 4:36 pm, Jason Pawloski <jpawlo...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello, I need to generate 5 random numbers, some between 0 to 23,
another between 0 and 24 and yet another between 0 and 25.

I am using this:

int getRandomNumber(int maxn)
{
return (unsigned int)(rand() % maxn);

}

The computations I am doing are extremely sensitive and I believe this
random number generate to be biased. Since rand() returns a number
between 0 and 32767, and not all 23, 24 and 25 can possibly divide
32767, some are more likely to be chosen than others.

In this program, I am eventually generating 500,000,000 random
numbers, so this bias will likely to be seen.

I am not a programmer by trade so I don't really know a lot, but is
there an easy way to get a unbiased random number?

Thanks! Jason

I would recommend Mersenne Twister, which is good for trillions of
random 32 bit numbers. I use it for any application where I need more
than a few random numbers.

.

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