Random Integer

Basic Random Integer

The arc4random_uniform() function is the simplest way to get high-quality random integers. As per the manual:

arc4random_uniform(upper_bound) will return a uniformly distributed random number less than upper_bound.

arc4random_uniform() is recommended over constructions like ”arc4random() % upper_bound” as it avoids “modulo bias” when the upper bound is not a power of two.

uint32_t randomInteger = arc4random_uniform(5); // A random integer between 0 and 4

Random Integer within a Range

The following code demonstrates usage of arc4random_uniform() to generate a random integer between 3 and 12:

uint32_t randomIntegerWithinRange = arc4random_uniform(10) + 3; // A random integer between 3 and 12

This works to create a range because arc4random_uniform(10) returns an integer between 0 and 9. Adding 3 to this random integer produces a range between 0 + 3 and 9 + 3.