How to generate random float number in C

Try:

float x = (float)rand()/(float)(RAND_MAX/a);

To understand how this works consider the following.

N = a random value in [0..RAND_MAX] inclusively.

The above equation (removing the casts for clarity) becomes:

N/(RAND_MAX/a)

But division by a fraction is the equivalent to multiplying by said fraction's reciprocal, so this is equivalent to:

N * (a/RAND_MAX)

which can be rewritten as:

a * (N/RAND_MAX)

Considering N/RAND_MAX is always a floating point value between 0.0 and 1.0, this will generate a value between 0.0 and a.

Alternatively, you can use the following, which effectively does the breakdown I showed above. I actually prefer this simply because it is clearer what is actually going on (to me, anyway):

float x = ((float)rand()/(float)(RAND_MAX)) * a;

Note: the floating point representation of a must be exact or this will never hit your absolute edge case of a (it will get close). See this article for the gritty details about why.

Sample

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

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    srand((unsigned int)time(NULL));

    float a = 5.0;
    for (int i=0;i<20;i++)
        printf("%f\n", ((float)rand()/(float)(RAND_MAX)) * a);
    return 0;
}

Output

1.625741
3.832026
4.853078
0.687247
0.568085
2.810053
3.561830
3.674827
2.814782
3.047727
3.154944
0.141873
4.464814
0.124696
0.766487
2.349450
2.201889
2.148071
2.624953
2.578719

You can also generate in a range [min, max] with something like

float float_rand( float min, float max )
{
    float scale = rand() / (float) RAND_MAX; /* [0, 1.0] */
    return min + scale * ( max - min );      /* [min, max] */
}

while it might not matter now here is a function which generate a float between 2 values.

#include <math.h>

float func_Uniform(float left, float right) {
    float randomNumber = sin(rand() * rand());
    return left + (right - left) * fabs(randomNumber);
}

This generates a random float between two floats.

float RandomFloat(float min, float max){
   return ((max - min) * ((float)rand() / RAND_MAX)) + min;
}