How Can I Generate Truly Uniform Random Numbers in C ?

Generating Random Numbers Uniformly over an Entire Range

You seek to generate random numbers uniformly distributed within a specified interval, [min, max]. However, your current method is producing numbers clustered around a single point.

Avoiding rand()

The rand() function is often unreliable for generating uniform distributions. It relies on a modulus operator that can introduce biases.

C 11 Uniform Distribution

In C 11, consider using std::uniform_int_distribution for a more reliable solution:

#include <iostream>
#include <random>

int main()
{    
    const int range_from  = min;
    const int range_to    = max;
    std::random_device                  rand_dev;
    std::mt19937                        generator(rand_dev());
    std::uniform_int_distribution<int>  distr(range_from, range_to);

    std::cout << distr(generator) << '\n';
}

Other Random Generators

The C 11 library offers various other random generators with different distributions. For example, std::shuffle can randomly reorder a container's elements.

Boost.Random Alternative

If C 11 is not available, consider using Boost.Random, which provides similar functionality.

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