What is performance-wise the best way to generate

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_distribution<> randomizer(0, 1);
const int val randomizer(std::mt19937(rd()));
const bool isDirectionChanged = static_cast<bool>(val);

But do not think that this is the best way to do this as I do not like doing static_cast<bool>.

On the web I have found a few more solutions

1. std::bernoulli_distribution

2. bool randbool = rand() & 1; Remember to call srand() at the beginning.

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 <stdint.h>

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 <stdint.h> //...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<uint64_t> uni(0,std::numeric_limits<uint64_t>::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;
  }
};

Answer 2

A way would be to just generate a unsigned long long for every 64 random calls as stated in the comments. An example:

#include <random>
class Randomizer
{
public:
    Randomizer() : m_rand(0), counter(0), randomizer(0, std::numeric_limits<unsigned long long>::max()) {}

    bool RandomBool()
    {
        if (!counter)
        {
            m_rand = randomizer(std::mt19937(rd()));
            counter = sizeof(unsigned long long) * 8;

        }
        return (m_rand >> --counter) & 1;
    }
private:
    std::random_device  rd;
    std::uniform_int_distribution<unsigned long long> randomizer;
    unsigned long long m_rand;
    int counter;
};

Answer 3

Unless you have further constraints on the randomness you need, the fastest way to generate a random bool is:

bool RandomBool() { return false; }

To be more specific, there are thousands of ways to generate random boolean numbers, all satisfying different constraints, and many of them do not deliver "truly" random numbers (that includes all the other answers so far). The word "random" alone does not tell anyone what properties you really need.