Thread: How to get a random number

Ignoring all of the sticky issues that can come up:

Code:

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
  for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
    cout<< rand() % 5 <<endl;
}

You'll run into the sticky issues in the following order:

1. The same random sequence each time the program is run (use srand)
2. The numbers may not be that random (don't use modulus)
3. rand sucks (get a better random number generator)

Conveniently enough, the first two are the most common, and they're answered in the FAQ. The last is a problem that you'll only run into when you're good and ready to tackle it, so no worries at this point.

shouldn't you be using

Code:

1+rand()%5;

to get a range of 1..5?

>shouldn't you be using
I looked again at the first post, and sure enough it said 1 to 5. How I misinterpreted that as "up to 5" is beyond me.