gsl_rng_gaussian?

I'm looking into using the gsl library random number generators...

The program I have at hand produces uniform random numbers in the range [0.0, 1.0),

Code:

---

    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <gsl/gsl_rng.h>
   
    int
    main (void)
    {
      const gsl_rng_type * T;
      gsl_rng * r;
   
      int i, n = 10;
   
      gsl_rng_env_setup();
   
      T = gsl_rng_default;
      r = gsl_rng_alloc (T);
   
      for (i = 0; i < n; i++)
        {
          double u = gsl_rng_uniform (r);
          printf ("%.5f\n", u);
        }
   
      gsl_rng_free (r);
   
      return 0;
    }

---

this code outputs:
$ ./a.out

0.99974
0.16291
0.28262
0.94720
0.23166
0.48497
0.95748
0.74431
0.54004
0.73995
in this particular case.

How can I modify it so it can generate random numbers based on gaussian distribution? ( I don't know enough to decipher the code above in parts)

double gsl_ran_gaussian (const gsl_rng * r, double sigma)

"This function returns a Gaussian random variate, with mean zero and standard deviation sigma. The probability distribution for Gaussian random variates is,

p(x) dx = {1 \over \sqrt{2 \pi \sigma^2}} \exp (-x^2 / 2\sigma^2) dx

for x in the range -\infty to +\infty. Use the transformation z = \mu + x on the numbers returned by gsl_ran_gaussian to obtain a Gaussian distribution with mean \mu. This function uses the Box-Mueller algorithm which requires two calls to the random number generator r. "

So do something like

double u = gsl_ran_gaussian (r, 0.2);
And get a Red Curve

double u = gsl_ran_gaussian (r, 5.0);
And get a Blue Curve

On top of the question (thanks Salem), I have trouble placing the list of randomly generated numbers into an already dynamically allocated array.

so I will have "u", which is this list of randomly generated numbers, and I want to put it in the array called "a", and I believe a for loop is needed in this case. I will have N integers in the list "u", and I want to place the first number in u to a[0], second number in a[1]...Nth number in a[N-1].

Code:

---

int i;
for(i=0, i < N, i++)
{

}
return (i);

---

What do I add in the brackets?

You don't know how to use arrays?

Code:

---

int array[3];
...
array[ 0 ] = something;
arrry[ 1 ] = somethingelse;
array[ 2 ] = array[ 1 ] + array[ 2 ];

---

Or a loop...

Code:

---

for( x = 0; x < 3; x++ )
    array[ x ] = somethingorother;

---

Don't you have any books on C? Any beginner level C book should cover arrays.


Quzah.