What is performance-wise the best way to generate random bools?

Question

I need to generate random Boolean values on a performance-critical path.

The code which I wrote for this is

std::random_device   rd;
std::uniform_int         


        

Answer 1

I would prefill a (long enough) (circular) buffer of 64bit random values, and then take very quickly one bit at a time when in need of a boolean random value

#include 

class BoolGenerator {
  private:
  const int BUFFER_SIZE = 65536;
  uint64_t randomBuffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
  uint64_t mask;
  int counter;

  void advanceCounter {
    counter++;
    if (counter == BUFFER_SIZE) {
        counter = 0;
    }
  }

  public:
  BoolGenerator() {
    //HERE FILL YOUR BUFFER WITH A RANDOM GENERATOR
    mask = 1;
    counter = 0;
  }

  bool generate() {
    mask <<= 1;
    if (!mask) { //After 64 shifts the mask becomes zero
        mask = 1;//reset mask
        advanceCounter();//get the next value in the buffer
    }
    return randomBuffer[counter] & mask;
  }
}

Of course the class can be made general to the buffer size, the random generator, the base type (doesn't necessarily have to be uint64_t) etc.

---

Accessing the buffer only once every 64 calls:

#include  //...and much more

class BoolGenerator {
  private:
  static const int BUFFER_SIZE = 65536;
  uint64_t randomBuffer[BUFFER_SIZE];
  uint64_t currValue;
  int bufferCounter;
  int bitCounter;

  void advanceBufferCounter() {
    bufferCounter++;
    if (bufferCounter == BUFFER_SIZE) {
        bufferCounter = 0;
    }
  }

  void getNextValue() {
      currValue = randomBuffer[bufferCounter];
      bitCounter = sizeof(uint64_t) * 8;
      advanceBufferCounter();
  }

  //HERE FILL YOUR BUFFER WITH A RANDOM GENERATOR
  void initializeBuffer() {
  //Anything will do, taken from here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/19728404/2436175
      std::random_device rd;
      std::mt19937 rng(rd());
      std::uniform_int_distribution uni(0,std::numeric_limits::max());
      for (int i = 0; i < BUFFER_SIZE; i++ ) {
          randomBuffer[i] = uni(rng);
      }
  }

  public:
  BoolGenerator() {
      initializeBuffer();
      bufferCounter = 0;
      getNextValue();
  }

  bool generate() {
      if (!bitCounter) {
           getNextValue();
      }
      //A variation of other methods seen around
      bitCounter--;
      bool retVal = currValue & 0x01;
      currValue >>= 1;
      return retVal;
  }
};