Wanting a simple way to generate a random number

[drpertree]

I'm writing in C. I am trying to get a simple way to generate a random number between 0 and 1. I'm not sure of two things - how to limit a random number to 0 or 1 and how to reset it every time I hit the "Enter" key.


I want to try to do something simple like a coin flip.

Each time the person presses enter, a random number is generated and if it is 0 it's heads and if 1 it's tails. I'm fairly new at C and am not sure exactly what to do.

To start, here's what I've done so far (trying to just get a random number). I do not know how to limit it to 0 and 1. This gives me the same number every time I run it. Thanks!

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{

int x = rand();
printf("%d",x);
return 0;
}

[toefraz]

I'm writing in C. I am trying to get a simple way to generate a random number between 0 and 1. I'm not sure of two things - how to limit a random number to 0 or 1 and how to reset it every time I hit the "Enter" key.


I want to try to do something simple like a coin flip.

Each time the person presses enter, a random number is generated and if it is 0 it's heads and if 1 it's tails. I'm fairly new at C and am not sure exactly what to do.

To start, here's what I've done so far (trying to just get a random number). I do not know how to limit it to 0 and 1. This gives me the same number every time I run it. Thanks!

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{

int x = rand();
printf("%d",x);
return 0;
}

First off, you need to seed your random number generator. A good way to do this is with your system clock, as the number it seeds with changes everytime the program runs. To do this you need the <ctime> header and place

srand(time(0));

before your rand() function in main.

To address the issue of getting either a 0 or a 1, use the modulus operator:

rand() % 2

Hope this helps.

[Savage]

I'm writing in C. I am trying to get a simple way to generate a random number between 0 and 1. I'm not sure of two things - how to limit a random number to 0 or 1 and how to reset it every time I hit the "Enter" key.


I want to try to do something simple like a coin flip.

Each time the person presses enter, a random number is generated and if it is 0 it's heads and if 1 it's tails. I'm fairly new at C and am not sure exactly what to do.

To start, here's what I've done so far (trying to just get a random number). I do not know how to limit it to 0 and 1. This gives me the same number every time I run it. Thanks!

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main()
{
 
int x = rand();
printf("%d",x);
   return 0;
}

You need first to initialize the generator with srand function:

e.g

#include <stdlib.h>
srand((unsigned)time(/*adress of time_t variable,can be NULL*/));

and them call rand()%num,which will generate a number between 0 and num-1.

[drpertree]

thanks so much for the help!