How does one make random number between range for

Question

so my goal in this codebit is to randomly roll two dice and as we all know your regular die only has 6 sides so I imported Foundation for access to arc4random_uniform(UInt32). I attempted using the range of (1..7) to avoid randomly getting 0 however that returned an error which I didn't enjoy too much. I tried to do this:

dice1 = arc4random_uniform(UInt32(1..7))

however that returned

Could not find an overload for 'init' that accepts the supplied arguments

I hope that this is enough information for you amazing debs out there to help me :)

Please note I am just doing this in a playground to practice swift. It isn't imperative that I learn how to do this; it's just me tinkering before I jump into building actual apps :D

//imports random number function
import Foundation
//creates data storage for dice roll
var dice1: UInt32 = 0
var dice2: UInt32 = 0
//counter variable
var i = 0
//how many times snake eyes happens
var snakeeyes = 0
 //how many times a double is rolled
var `double` = 0
//rolls dice 100 times
while i < 100{
    //from here
    //sets dice roll

This returns an error of 'Range $T3' is not convertible to UInt32

   dice1 = arc4random_uniform(1..7)
   dice2 = arc4random_uniform(1..7)

    //checks for snake eyes
    if dice1 == 1 && dice2 == 1 {
        snakeeyes = snakeeyes + 1

    }
    //checks for doubles
    if dice1 == dice2{
        `double` = `double` + 1
    }
    //increases counter
        i = i + 1
    //to here
}
println("You got Snake Eyes \(snakeeyes) times.")
println("You got Doubles, \(`double`) times.")

Answer 1

If You want i create that for random numbers. this is extension of number Int and Double, Float

/**
    Arc Random for Double and Float
*/
public func arc4random <T: IntegerLiteralConvertible> (type: T.Type) -> T {
    var r: T = 0
    arc4random_buf(&r, UInt(sizeof(T)))
    return r
}
public extension Int {
    /**
    Create a random num Int
    :param: lower number Int
    :param: upper number Int
    :return: random number Int
    By DaRkDOG
    */
    public static func random (#lower: Int , upper: Int) -> Int {
        return lower + Int(arc4random_uniform(upper - lower + 1))
    }

}
public extension Double {
    /**
    Create a random num Double
    :param: lower number Double
    :param: upper number Double
    :return: random number Double
    By DaRkDOG
    */
    public static func random(#lower: Double, upper: Double) -> Double {
        let r = Double(arc4random(UInt64)) / Double(UInt64.max)
        return (r * (upper - lower)) + lower
    }
}
public extension Float {
    /**
    Create a random num Float
    :param: lower number Float
    :param: upper number Float
    :return: random number Float
    By DaRkDOG
    */
    public static func random(#lower: Float, upper: Float) -> Float {
        let r = Float(arc4random(UInt32)) / Float(UInt32.max)
        return (r * (upper - lower)) + lower
    }
}

USE :

let randomNumDouble = Double.random(lower: 0.00, upper: 23.50)
let randomNumInt = Int.random(lower: 56, upper: 992)
let randomNumInt =Float.random(lower: 6.98, upper: 923.09)

Answer 2

Swift 3/4:

func randomNumber(range: ClosedRange<Int> = 1...6) -> Int {
    let min = range.lowerBound
    let max = range.upperBound
    return Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(1 + max - min))) + min
}

Answer 3

I believe you should do

dice1 = arc4random_uniform(6) + 1;

to get the range 1 - 6. I don't do iOS objective C nor have I any knowledge on swift-language though. The random method should return a value between 0 and 5, and + 1 will make it a value between 1 and 6.

If you need a range between lets say 10 - 30 then just do

int random = arc4random_uniform(21) + 10;

Answer 4

Quite a few good answers, but I just wanted to share my personal favourite Swift random number generation function for positive integers:

Swift 2

func randomNumber(range: Range<Int> = 1...6) -> Int {
    let min = range.startIndex
    let max = range.endIndex
    return Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(max - min))) + min
}

Swift 3

Here's a quick update for Swift 3 and, as a bonus, it now works for any value type that conforms to the SignedInteger protocol - much more convenient for core data applications that need to specify Int16, Int32 etc. As a quick note, if you really need it to work on unsigned integers as well, just copy the entire function then replace SignedInteger with UnsignedInteger and toIntMax() with toUIntMax().

func randomNumber<T : SignedInteger>(inRange range: ClosedRange<T> = 1...6) -> T {
    let length = (range.upperBound - range.lowerBound + 1).toIntMax()
    let value = arc4random().toIntMax() % length + range.lowerBound.toIntMax()
    return T(value)
}

Swift 4

Thanks to the removal of toIntMax() in Swift 4, we now have to use a different means of converting to a common integer type. In this example I'm using Int64 which is large enough for my purposes, but if you're using unsigned integers or have an Int128 or Int256 custom type you should use those.

public func randomNumber<T : SignedInteger>(inRange range: ClosedRange<T> = 1...6) -> T {
    let length = Int64(range.upperBound - range.lowerBound + 1)
    let value = Int64(arc4random()) % length + Int64(range.lowerBound)
    return T(value)
}

One more, for the total random-phile, here's an extension that returns a random element from any Collection type object. Note this uses the above function to generate its index so you will need both.

extension Collection {
    func randomItem() -> Self.Iterator.Element {
        let count = distance(from: startIndex, to: endIndex)
        let roll = randomNumber(inRange: 0...count-1)
        return self[index(startIndex, offsetBy: roll)]
    }
}

Usage

randomNumber()

returns a random number between 1 and 6.

randomNumber(50...100)

returns a number between 50 and 100 inclusive. Naturally you can replace the values of 50 and 100 with whatever you like.

Answer 5

Swift:

var index = 1 + random() % 6

Answer 6

I modified @DaRk-_-D0G's answer to work with Swift 2.0

/**
Arc Random for Double and Float
*/
public func arc4random <T: IntegerLiteralConvertible> (type: T.Type) -> T {
    var r: T = 0
    arc4random_buf(&r, sizeof(T))
    return r
}
public extension Int {
    /**
    Create a random num Int
    :param: lower number Int
    :param: upper number Int
    :return: random number Int
    By DaRkDOG
    */
    public static func random (lower: Int , upper: Int) -> Int {
        return lower + Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(upper - lower + 1)))
    }

}
public extension Double {
    /**
    Create a random num Double
    :param: lower number Double
    :param: upper number Double
    :return: random number Double
    By DaRkDOG
    */
    public static func random(lower: Double, upper: Double) -> Double {
        let r = Double(arc4random(UInt64)) / Double(UInt64.max)
        return (r * (upper - lower)) + lower
    }
}
public extension Float {
    /**
    Create a random num Float
    :param: lower number Float
    :param: upper number Float
    :return: random number Float
    By DaRkDOG
    */
    public static func random(lower: Float, upper: Float) -> Float {
        let r = Float(arc4random(UInt32)) / Float(UInt32.max)
        return (r * (upper - lower)) + lower
    }
}