How does rand() work? Does it have certain tendencies? Is there something better to use?

Question

I have read that it has something to do with time, also you get from including time.h, so I assumed that much, but how does it work exactly? Also, does it have any tendencie

Answer 1

rand returns numbers generated by a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). The sequence of numbers it returns is deterministic, based on the value with which the PRNG was initialized (by calling srand).

The numbers should be distributed such that they appear somewhat random, so, for example, odd and even numbers should be returned at roughly the same frequency. The actual implementation of the random number generator is left unspecified, so the actual behavior is specific to the implementation.

The important thing to remember is that rand does not return random numbers; it returns pseudo-random numbers, and the values it returns are determined by the seed value and the number of times rand has been called. This behavior is fine for many use cases, but is not appropriate for others (for example, rand would not be appropriate for use in many cryptographic applications).