Thread: Rand and srand

Code:

srand ( time(NULL) );                
      i = rand () % 18;

I need a random number chosen for every iteration of the while loop

Code:

while (d != 6) {

srand ( time(NULL) );                
      i = rand () % 18;

d++;
}

But the problem is, this rand and srand does it per second, so unless i put

Code:

d! = 10000

, the number is always the same for 1 whole second, how can i get it to choose a random number every millisecond?

The one thing is that you're only supposed to seed the pseudo-random number generator once before use, that's just something that you're doing wrong. If you keep re-seeding, than that means you're starting the period over, meaning that you will only get a very different number when the time changes significantly enough.

OTOH, if you fix that and then the seed itself (the time) is inappropriate because it's not random enough, you might want to try hashing the time so that you get less of a seed dependant on the clock.

something simple like:

h(k) = k(k + 3) % RAND_MAX

doesn't have to be difficult, but it depends how random you need to be. If you need to be cryptographically random, you'll need to build and use a different generator than rand().

check out this site for info on random numbers...its from one of the C board members

http://www.eternallyconfuzzled.com/t..._tut_rand.aspx

cheers
maverix

Ah yea, that fixed it, i just moved it before the loop, and it's working now, that 'hashing' citizen talked about looks interesting, thanks for that, will check it out.

Cheers