How do I get a specific range of numbers from rand()?

srand(time(null));

printf("%d", rand());

Gives a high-range random number (0-32000ish), but I only need about 0-63 or 0-127, though I'm not sure how to go about it. Any help?

rand() % (max_number + 1 - minimum_number) + minimum_number

So, for 0-65:

rand() % (65 + 1 - 0) + 0

(obviously you can leave the 0 off, but it's there for completeness).

Note that this will bias the randomness slightly, but probably not anything to be concerned about if you're not doing something particularly sensitive.

check here

http://c-faq.com/lib/randrange.html

For any of these techniques, it's straightforward to shift the range, if necessary; numbers in the range [M, N] could be generated with something like

M + rand() / (RAND_MAX / (N - M + 1) + 1)

You can use this:

int random(int min, int max){
   return min + rand() / (RAND_MAX / (max - min + 1) + 1);
}

From the:

comp.lang.c FAQ list · Question 13.16

Q: How can I get random integers in a certain range?

A: The obvious way,

rand() % N        /* POOR */

(which tries to return numbers from 0 to N-1) is poor, because the low-order bits of many random number generators are distressingly non-random. (See question 13.18.) A better method is something like

(int)((double)rand() / ((double)RAND_MAX + 1) * N)

If you'd rather not use floating point, another method is

rand() / (RAND_MAX / N + 1)

If you just need to do something with probability 1/N, you could use

if(rand() < (RAND_MAX+1u) / N)

All these methods obviously require knowing RAND_MAX (which ANSI #defines in <stdlib.h>), and assume that N is much less than RAND_MAX. When N is close to RAND_MAX, and if the range of the random number generator is not a multiple of N (i.e. if (RAND_MAX+1) % N != 0), all of these methods break down: some outputs occur more often than others. (Using floating point does not help; the problem is that rand returns RAND_MAX+1 distinct values, which cannot always be evenly divvied up into N buckets.) If this is a problem, about the only thing you can do is to call rand multiple times, discarding certain values:

unsigned int x = (RAND_MAX + 1u) / N;
unsigned int y = x * N;
unsigned int r;
do {
  r = rand();
} while(r >= y);
return r / x;

For any of these techniques, it's straightforward to shift the range, if necessary; numbers in the range [M, N] could be generated with something like

M + rand() / (RAND_MAX / (N - M + 1) + 1)

(Note, by the way, that RAND_MAX is a constant telling you what the fixed range of the C library rand function is. You cannot set RAND_MAX to some other value, and there is no way of requesting that rand return numbers in some other range.)

If you're starting with a random number generator which returns floating-point values between 0 and 1 (such as the last version of PMrand alluded to in question 13.15, or drand48 in question 13.21), all you have to do to get integers from 0 to N-1 is multiply the output of that generator by N:

(int)(drand48() * N)

Additional links

References: K&R2 Sec. 7.8.7 p. 168
PCS Sec. 11 p. 172

Quote from: http://c-faq.com/lib/randrange.html