How to generate random numbers in the C language?

2 years ago
Benjamin Taylor
2 minutes

In C language, you can utilize the rand() function to generate random numbers. The specific method is as follows:

  1. Include the header file: The first step is to include the stdlib.h header file in the program.
#include <stdlib.h>
  1. Setting the seed value: Use the srand() function to set a seed value. Typically, the current time can be used as the seed value using the time() function.
srand(time(NULL));
  1. Generate random numbers: Use the rand() function to generate random numbers. When you call the rand() function, it will return a random integer between 0 and RAND_MAX (usually 32767).
int random_number = rand();
  1. Limit range: To generate random numbers within a specific range, you can achieve this by using modulo operation and offset. For example, to generate a random number between 1 and 100, you can use the following code:
int random_number = rand() % 100 + 1;

The complete example code is as follows:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

int main() {
    // 设置种子值
    srand(time(NULL));

    // 生成随机数
    int random_number = rand();

    // 限定范围
    random_number = random_number % 100 + 1;

    // 输出结果
    printf("Random number: %d\n", random_number);

    return 0;
}

The code above will generate a random number between 1 and 100, and then display it on the console.

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