Thread: Random but Unique Numbers

is there any chance of an example of a boolean array - the reason i am asking this is because i need to create 2 random numbers like co-ordinates. and cant have any duplicates

yes - could you provide an example of how it can be used? obviously you not have to do it on my program - its just i havent used one before so i dont know how it works

ok thanks - ill work with this and see if i can implement it into my random number generator.

well i have had a go - it might be completely wrong but i there are a few things that i am not sure about - if it is completely wrong please let me know where i am going wrong

here is my new updated code

Code:

int main ()
{
        bool arr[10];
        for(int j = 0; j < 10; j++) arr[j] = false;

        srand((unsigned)time(NULL)); // seed random number generator with system time
        int MyRand[10]={0}; // an array to store our random values;

          if (arr[MyRand[10]])
          {
            //not sure what to put here
          }

          else
          {
                arr[MyRand[10]] = true;
        
                for(int i=0; i<10; ++i)
                {
                        MyRand[i]=rand()&#37;11+1; // get random number between 1 and 40 and store in array
                        cout<<MyRand[i]<<endl;
                }
          }


        cin.get();

}

there is an error also which is a access voilation at this line

Code:

arr[MyRand[10]] = true;

The error is because when you make an array, the first index is 0 (the number that goes in the [ ]). So an array of 10 would have indexes of 0 through 9.

Also, you were on the right track the first time when it came up with duplicate numbers. You don't have to redo your entire code, only insert a few things.

ah right i see - well ill have another look - its confusing me and i bet it is something really simple :S

Originally Posted by iMalc

There are 3 bugs on this line. (Or 4 if you count the usage of % with rand)
1. An off by one error since MyRand starts at 0 and the expression has a minimum of 1.
2. Another off by one error since the right hand side generates numbers between 1 and 11 but the array only holds 10 items.
3. The comment is wrong.

So you're actually overstepping the bounds by 2 on that line.

No, he's indexing MyRand[i], and i goes from 0 to 9, so that's all fine. The random numbers are just values, not array indexes.

Are you trying to get a random number between 1 and 40 or 1 and 10?

If it's 1 and 10, then it looks like you really should be using matsp's first suggestion of random_shuffle. Even for 1 in 40 I'd probably use that method as well.

Using random_shuffle makes sense when the range of numbers that you can pick from is not much bigger than the number of numbers you want to pick.

If you want 10 random numbers in the range of [1, 40], then create an array (or vector) that holds the numbers 1 through 40. Then call random_shuffle on the array. The first ten numbers in the array are now your 10 random (but unique) numbers.

This probably doesn't take up any more space than the bool array, but it might end up calling rand() a few more times internally (then again, with the bool array your worst case is infinite calls to rand()).

If the range is really large, then I would use a set (or hash_set) to store the already chosen numbers. That's because the bool array would get too big.