[c] How to generate random float number in C

I can't find any solution to generate a random float number in the range of [0,a], where a is some float defined by a user.

I have tried the following, but it doesn't seem to work correctly.

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

This question is related to c random

The answer is


This generates a random float between two floats.

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

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);
}

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] */
}

If you want to generate a random float in a range, try a next solution.

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


float
random_float(const float min, const float max)
{
    if (max == min) return min;
    else if (min < max) return (max - min) * ((float)rand() / RAND_MAX) + min;

    // return 0 if min > max
    return 0;
}


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

    char line[] = "-------------------------------------------";

    float data[10][2] = {
        {-10, 10},
        {-5., 5},
        {-1, 1},
        {-0.25, -0.15},
        {1.5, 1.52},
        {-1700, 8000},
        {-0.1, 0.1},
        {-1, 0},
        {-1, -2},
        {1.2, 1.1}
    };

    puts(line);
    puts("     From    |    Result    |      To");
    puts(line);


    int i;
    for (i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
        printf("%12f | %12f | %12f\n", data[i][0], random_float(data[i][0], data[i][1]), data[i][1]);
    }

    puts(line);

    return 0;
}

A result (values is fickle)

-------------------------------------------
     From    |    Result    |      To
-------------------------------------------
  -10.000000 |     2.330828 |    10.000000
   -5.000000 |    -4.945523 |     5.000000
   -1.000000 |     0.004242 |     1.000000
   -0.250000 |    -0.203197 |    -0.150000
    1.500000 |     1.513431 |     1.520000
-1700.000000 |  3292.941895 |  8000.000000
   -0.100000 |    -0.021541 |     0.100000
   -1.000000 |    -0.148299 |     0.000000
   -1.000000 |     0.000000 |    -2.000000
    1.200000 |     0.000000 |     1.100000
-------------------------------------------