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  Random Number Generator
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Editor's Note: The description can be found in the comments at the top of the code listing.

Download Associated File: randomnum.cpp (3,859 bytes)

#ifndef RAND_H

#define RAND_H

//** Random number class and Random number pool class. This acts as a //** replacement for the stdlib rand() function. Why would you want to //** replace the rand() function? Because you often want a deteriminstic //** random number generator that is exactly the same regardless of what //** machine or compiler you build your code on. The stdlib rand() function //** is not guaraenteed to produce the same results on different stdlib //** implementations. //** //** You can also maintain any number of unique random number generators //** as state machines by instancing this rand class over and over again. //** //** The random number pool is a data structure which you allocate if you //** want to pull items from a data set, randomly, but without any //** duplications. A simple example would be a deck of cards. You would //** instantiate the random number pool as follows: //** //** RandPool deck(52); //** //** You would then pull cards from the deck as follows: //** //** bool shuffled; //** int card = deck.Get(shuffled); //** //** This will return a number between 0-51 (representing a card in the deck) //** without ever reporting the same card twice until the deck has been //** exhausted. If the boolean 'shuffled' is true, then the deck was //** re-shuffled on that call. This data structure has lots of uses in //** computer games where you want to randomly select data from a fixed //** pool size. //** //** This code submitted to FlipCode.com on July 23, 2000 by John W. Ratcliff //** It is released into the public domain on the same date. class Rand { public:

Rand(int seed=0) { mCurrent = seed; };

// random number between 0 - 32767 int Get(void) { return(((mCurrent = mCurrent * 214013L + 2531011L) >> 16) & 0x7fff); };

// random number between 0.0 and 1.0 float GetFloat(void) { return float(Get())*(1.0f/32767.0f); };

void Set(int seed) { mCurrent = seed; };

private: int mCurrent; };

class RandPool { public: RandPool(int size,int seed) // size of random number pool. { mRand.Set(seed); // init random number generator. mData = new int[size]; // allocate memory for random number pool. mSize = size; mTop = mSize; for (int i=0; i<mSize; i++) mData[i] = i; } ~RandPool(void) { delete mData; };

// pull a number from the random number pool, will never return the // same number twice until the 'deck' (pool) has been exhausted. // Will set the shuffled flag to true if the deck/pool was exhausted // on this call. int Get(bool &shuffled) { if ( mTop == 0 ) // deck exhausted, shuffle deck. { shuffled = true; mTop = mSize; } else shuffled = false; int entry = mRand.Get()%mTop; mTop--; int ret = mData[entry]; // swap top of pool with entry mData[entry] = mData[mTop]; // returned mData[mTop] = ret; return ret; };

private: Rand mRand; // random number generator. int *mData; // random number bool. int mSize; // size of random number pool. int mTop; // current top of the random number pool. };

#endif

//** Test application demonstrating the usage of these two classes. #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include <assert.h>

#include "rand.h"

static char *suitnames[4] = { "hearts", "clubs", "diamonds", "spades" }; static char *cardnames[13] = { "ace", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", "seven", "eight", "nine", "ten", "jack", "queen", "king" };

void main(int argc,char **argv) {

RandPool deck(52,0);

printf("Dealing deck of 52 cards.\n");

for (int i=0; i<52; i++) { bool shuffled; int card = deck.Get(shuffled); int suit = card/13; card = card%13; printf("%s of %s\n",cardnames[card],suitnames[suit]); } }

The zip file viewer built into the Developer Toolbox made use of the zlib library, as well as the zlibdll source additions.

 

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