On Sat, 6 Aug 2011, Andrew Haley wrote:
On 08/06/2011 08:47 AM, Anna Sidera wrote:
Hello,
I am using gcc on a unix machine. Can you tell me how many random numbers can be generated using
rand()
before the random numbers start repeating?
man rand
If it's not there, complain to your unix vendor.
The period is required by posix to be larger or equal to 2^32.
One would hope it has full period, i.e. it generates all RAND_MAX numbers,
but that depends on your system.
One would even hope the period is larger, so the output of rand() is not a
deterministic function of its last return value (random generators often
keep a hidden state).
--
Marc Glisse
