Coder's Guild Mailing List

Re: random

Posted by Dan Nuffer on 1999-09-18

> Is there a way to use random in C++?
> I tried rand() but I keep getting the same sequence
> every time I run the program,I would like the program
> to give different values everytime I run the program.
> for example first time I run the program I get the
> values lets say 1,44,22,34
> then the second time I run the program I get lets say
> 33,11,55,88,100
> thanks in advanced

rand() produces a reproducible random number sequence, given the same seed
value.  So every time you run your program if you want to get a difference
sequence of random numbers, you must initialize rand() with a different
seed.  One common way of doing this is by getting the current time and using
that as the seed.  Like this:

srand( (unsigned)time( NULL ) );

Just put this line in the beginning of your program and you will get the
results you desire.

Dan Nuffer  dan@xxx.xxx  http://students.cs.byu.edu/~nuffer
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