iOS Auto seed random number

[thedollarhunter]

I am trying out different ways of generating random numbers and want to use a seed derived from something like the position of the last touch or some other human influence.

Any other random tricks or tips would be great.

 

[SilentPanda]

Why not just use the staple of the current time in milliseconds?

 

[dejo]

Is there a simple way to return the last digit of a float number as an integer?

What about converting the float to a string, grabbing the last character, converting that to an int?

 

[chown33]

Just use arc4random(). Problem solved.

If you want to know how or why, google the source for arc4random().


Then read this:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4253674/seeding-arc4random-in-iphone-sdk

Just because you want to do something, doesn't mean it's sensible. Naive seeding is more harmful than doing something known to work correctly and is simpler.

 

[thedollarhunter]

Perfect, just what I was looking for

Thanks

link to man page for anyone else looking to compare random() v arc4random()

Just use arc4random(). Problem solved.

If you want to know how or why, google the source for arc4random().


Then read this:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4253674/seeding-arc4random-in-iphone-sdk

Just because you want to do something, doesn't mean it's sensible. Naive seeding is more harmful than doing something known to work correctly and is simpler.