Is rand() harmful?

​I saw this awesome presentation on why rand() is considered harmful. When you need a random number, don’t call rand() and especially don’t say rand() % 100! This presentation will explain why that’s so terrible, and how C++11’s header can make your life so much easier.

If you need uniqueness and non-deterministic, especially on the context of security or crypto then you need to think about a few things. For example the frequency, non-uniform distribution, and not using a pseudo random number generator (such as Mersenne twister) and not a linear congruential generator.

Published by

Amit Bahree

This blog is my personal blog and while it does reflect my experiences in my professional life, this is just my thoughts. Most of the entries are technical though sometimes they can vary from the wacky to even political – however that is quite rare. Quite often, I have been asked what’s up with the “gibberish” and the funny title of the blog? Some people even going the extra step to say that, this is a virus that infected their system (ahem) well. [:D] It actually is quite simple, and if you have still not figured out then check out this link – whats in a name?

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.