std::uniform_real_distribution

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

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Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

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Concepts library (C++20)

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Ranges library (C++20)

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Filesystem library (C++17)

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Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Numerics library

Common mathematical functions
Mathematical special functions (C++17)
Mathematical constants (C++20)
Basic linear algebra algorithms (C++26)
Floating-point environment (C++11)
Complex numbers
Numeric array (valarray)
Pseudo-random number generation
Factor operations
gcd (C++17)	lcm (C++17)
Interpolations
midpoint (C++20)	lerp (C++20)
Saturation arithmetic
add_sat (C++26) sub_sat (C++26) saturate_cast (C++26)	mul_sat (C++26) div_sat (C++26)
Generic numeric operations
iota (C++11) ranges::iota (C++23) accumulate inner_product adjacent_difference partial_sum	reduce (C++17) transform_reduce (C++17) inclusive_scan (C++17) exclusive_scan (C++17) transform_inclusive_scan (C++17) transform_exclusive_scan (C++17)
Bit operations
has_single_bit (C++20)     bit_cast (C++20) bit_ceil (C++20) bit_floor (C++20) bit_width (C++20) rotl (C++20) rotr (C++20)	popcount (C++20) countl_zero (C++20) countl_one (C++20) countr_zero (C++20) countr_one (C++20) byteswap (C++23) endian (C++20)

 

Pseudo-random number generation

Uniform random bit generators   uniform_random_bit_generator (C++20) Random number engines linear_congruential_engine (C++11) mersenne_twister_engine (C++11) subtract_with_carry_engine (C++11) philox_engine (C++26) Random number engine adaptors discard_block_engine (C++11) independent_bits_engine (C++11) shuffle_order_engine (C++11) Predefined random number generators Non-deterministic random numbers random_device (C++11) Utilities generate_canonical (C++11) seed_seq (C++11) Random number algorithms ranges::generate_random (C++26) C random library rand    srand    RAND_MAX

Random number distributions Uniform distributions uniform_int_distribution (C++11) uniform_real_distribution (C++11) generate_canonical (C++11) Bernoulli distributions bernoulli_distribution (C++11) binomial_distribution (C++11) negative_binomial_distribution (C++11) geometric_distribution (C++11) Poisson distributions poisson_distribution (C++11) exponential_distribution (C++11) gamma_distribution (C++11) weibull_distribution (C++11) extreme_value_distribution (C++11) Normal distributions normal_distribution (C++11) lognormal_distribution (C++11) chi_squared_distribution (C++11) cauchy_distribution (C++11) fisher_f_distribution (C++11) student_t_distribution (C++11) Sampling distributions discrete_distribution (C++11) piecewise_constant_distribution (C++11) piecewise_linear_distribution (C++11)

 

std::uniform_real_distribution

Member functions

uniform_real_distribution::uniform_real_distribution

uniform_real_distribution::reset

Generation

uniform_real_distribution::operator()

Characteristics

uniform_real_distribution::auniform_real_distribution::b

uniform_real_distribution::param

uniform_real_distribution::min

uniform_real_distribution::max

Non-member functions

operator==operator!= (C++11)(C++11)(until C++20)

operator<<operator>> (C++11)(C++11)

 

Defined in header <random>
template< class RealType = double > class uniform_real_distribution;		(since C++11)

Produces random floating-point values \(\small x\)x, uniformly distributed on the interval \(\small [a, b)\)[a, b), that is, distributed according to the probability density function:

\({\small P(x|a,b) =} \frac{1}{b-a}\)P(x|a,b) =

1

b − a

.

std::uniform_real_distribution satisfies all requirements of RandomNumberDistribution.

Template parameters

RealType

-

The result type generated by the generator. The effect is undefined if this is not one of float, double, or long double.

Member types

Member type	Definition
result_type(C++11)	RealType
param_type (C++11)	the type of the parameter set, see RandomNumberDistribution.

Member functions

(constructor) (C++11)	constructs new distribution (public member function)
reset (C++11)	resets the internal state of the distribution (public member function)
Generation
operator() (C++11)	generates the next random number in the distribution (public member function)
Characteristics
ab (C++11)	returns the distribution parameters (public member function)
param (C++11)	gets or sets the distribution parameter object (public member function)
min (C++11)	returns the minimum potentially generated value (public member function)
max (C++11)	returns the maximum potentially generated value (public member function)

Non-member functions

operator==operator!= (C++11)(C++11)(removed in C++20)	compares two distribution objects (function)
operator<<operator>> (C++11)	performs stream input and output on pseudo-random number distribution (function template)

Notes

It is difficult to create a distribution over the closed interval \(\small[a, b]\)[a, b] from this distribution. Using std::nextafter(b, std::numeric_limits<RealType>::max()) as the second parameter does not always work due to rounding error.

Most existing implementations have a bug where they may occasionally return \(\small b\)b (GCC #63176 LLVM #18767 MSVC STL #1074). This was originally only thought to happen when RealType is float and when LWG issue 2524 is present, but it has since been shown that neither is required to trigger the bug.

Example

Print 10 random numbers between 1 and 2.

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <random>
 
int main()
{
    std::random_device rd;  // Will be used to obtain a seed for the random number engine
    std::mt19937 gen(rd()); // Standard mersenne_twister_engine seeded with rd()
    std::uniform_real_distribution<> dis(1.0, 2.0);
    for (int n = 0; n < 10; ++n)
        // Use dis to transform the random unsigned int generated by gen into a 
        // double in [1, 2). Each call to dis(gen) generates a new random double.
        std::cout << dis(gen) << ' ';
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Possible output:

1.80829 1.15391 1.18483 1.38969 1.36094 1.0648 1.97798 1.27984 1.68261 1.57326

External links

Drawing random floating-point numbers from an interval — © 2022. Frédéric Goualard, Université de Nantes.