STL function random_shuffle( ) possible bug?

[Ronak]

Hi,
I'm encountering a very erratic behavior of STL function
random_shuffle( ) in my code. I have vectors s1 and s2 each having
elements {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} which i want to randomly shuffle.

My problem is that random_shuffle( ) (with or without the third
parameter) replaces any element of either vector with 0. for example
after some random_shuffles , i get

Sequence S1: { 1 5 2 6 4 0 }, Sequence S2: { 1 3 5 4 2 6 }
OR
Sequence S1: { 3 2 5 6 4 0 }, Sequence S2: { 4 5 3 2 6 1 }

This is the code I wrote to do random_shuffle( )

void gen_new_sequenc e () {

MyRandom rd;
srand((unsigned )time( NULL));
random_shuffle( s1.begin(), s1.end( ), rd);

srand((unsigned )time( NULL ));
random_shuffle( s2.begin( ), s2.end( ), rd);
}

The function object MyRandom is defined as follows:

class MyRandom { //random number generating functor
public:
ptrdiff_t operator() (ptrdiff_t max) {
double tmp;
tmp = static_cast<dou ble>(rand()) /
static_cast<dou ble>(RAND_MAX);
return static_cast<ptr diff_t>(tmp * max);
}
};

One thing i noted is that if vectors s1 and s2 have a large size, the
problem doesn't occur. For smaller sized vectors, a 0 gets invariably
inserted somewhere.

Can anyone help?

[tom_usenet]

On 16 Nov 2003 13:12:57 -0800, ro***********@y ahoo.com (Ronak) wrote:

Hi,
I'm encountering a very erratic behavior of STL function
random_shuffle () in my code. I have vectors s1 and s2 each having
elements {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} which i want to randomly shuffle.
random_shuffle is a simple algorithm. You should be able to tell by
inspection of the source code that it is correct - I severely doubt
such a simple algorithm would contain a bug.
My problem is that random_shuffle( ) (with or without the third
parameter) replaces any element of either vector with 0. for example
after some random_shuffles , i get

Sequence S1: { 1 5 2 6 4 0 }, Sequence S2: { 1 3 5 4 2 6 }
OR
Sequence S1: { 3 2 5 6 4 0 }, Sequence S2: { 4 5 3 2 6 1 }

This is the code I wrote to do random_shuffle( )

void gen_new_sequenc e () {

MyRandom rd;
srand((unsigned )time( NULL));
random_shuffle( s1.begin(), s1.end( ), rd);

srand((unsigned )time( NULL ));
You should only generally call srand once in your whole program (often
the first line of main).
random_shuffle( s2.begin( ), s2.end( ), rd);
}

The function object MyRandom is defined as follows:

class MyRandom { //random number generating functor
public:
ptrdiff_t operator() (ptrdiff_t max) {
double tmp;
tmp = static_cast<dou ble>(rand()) /
static_cast<do uble>(RAND_MAX) ;
The above line is wrong, since rand() == RAND_MAX is possible. It
should be:

tmp = rand() / (RAND_MAX + 1.0);

return static_cast<ptr diff_t>(tmp * max);
}
};

One thing i noted is that if vectors s1 and s2 have a large size, the
problem doesn't occur. For smaller sized vectors, a 0 gets invariably
inserted somewhere.

Can anyone help?

The random functor has to behave as specified - it must return a
number in the range [0, max). Yours was returning [0, max] (e.g.
inclusive at both ends). I suspect that this is the problem, but it
might not be.

Tom