C library function - srand()

Description

The C library function void srand(unsigned int seed) seeds the random number generator used by the function rand.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for srand() function.

void srand(unsigned int seed)

Parameters

• seed -- This is an integer value to be used as seed by the pseudo-random number generator algorithm.

Return Value

This function does not return any value.

Example

The following example shows the usage of srand() function.

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

int main()
{
   int i, n;
   time_t t;
   
   n = 5;
   
   /* Intializes random number generator */
   srand((unsigned) time(&t));

   /* Print 5 random numbers from 0 to 50 */
   for( i = 0 ; i < n ; i++ ) {
      printf("%d\n", rand() % 50);
   }
   
  return(0);
}

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result:

38
45
29
29
47