C++ named requirements: UniformRandomBitGenerator (since C++11)

 

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C++ named requirements

Basic DefaultConstructible MoveConstructible (C++11) CopyConstructible CopyAssignable MoveAssignable (C++11) Destructible Type properties ScalarType PODType TriviallyCopyable (C++11) TrivialType (C++11) StandardLayoutType (C++11)   ImplicitLifetimeType Library-wide BooleanTestable EqualityComparable LessThanComparable Swappable ValueSwappable (C++11) NullablePointer (C++11) Hash (C++11) Allocator FunctionObject Callable Predicate BinaryPredicate Compare

Container Container ReversibleContainer AllocatorAwareContainer SequenceContainer ContiguousContainer (C++17) AssociativeContainer UnorderedAssociativeContainer (C++11)   Container element DefaultInsertable (C++11) CopyInsertable (C++11) MoveInsertable (C++11) EmplaceConstructible (C++11) Erasable (C++11) Iterator LegacyIterator LegacyInputIterator LegacyOutputIterator LegacyForwardIterator LegacyBidirectionalIterator LegacyRandomAccessIterator LegacyContiguousIterator (C++17) ConstexprIterator (C++20) Stream I/O FormattedInputFunction UnformattedInputFunction FormattedOutputFunction UnformattedOutputFunction Formatters BasicFormatter (C++20) Formatter (C++20)

Random Numbers SeedSequence (C++11) RandomNumberEngine (C++11) RandomNumberDistribution (C++11) UniformRandomBitGenerator (C++11) RandomNumberEngineAdaptor (C++11) Concurrency BasicLockable (C++11) Lockable (C++11) TimedLockable (C++11) SharedLockable (C++14) SharedTimedLockable (C++14) Mutex (C++11) TimedMutex (C++11) SharedMutex (C++17) SharedTimedMutex (C++14) Ranges RangeAdaptorObject (C++20) RangeAdaptorClosureObject (C++20) Multidimensional View LayoutMapping (C++23) LayoutMappingPolicy (C++23) AccessorPolicy (C++23) Other CharTraits RegexTraits (C++11)   BitmaskType LiteralType (C++11) NumericType UnaryTypeTrait (C++11) BinaryTypeTrait (C++11) TransformationTrait (C++11) Clock (C++11) TrivialClock (C++11)

 

A uniform random bit generator is a function object returning unsigned integer values such that each value in the range of possible results has (ideally) equal probability.

Uniform random bit generators are not intended to be used as random number generators: they are used as the source of random bits (generated in bulk, for efficiency). Any uniform random bit generator may be plugged into any random number distribution in order to obtain a random number (formally, a random variate).

Requirements

The type G satisfies UniformRandomBitGenerator if

Given g, a value of type G, all following conditions are satisfied: G::result_type is valid, and denotes an unsigned integer type. The following expressions must be valid and have their specified effects:

(until C++20)

Expression	Type	Requirements
G::min()	G::result_type	Yields the smallest value that G's operator() may return.  The result value is strictly less than G::max(). The expression must be a constant expression.
G::max()	G::result_type	Yields the largest value that G's operator() may return. The result value is strictly greater than G::min(). The expression must be a constant expression.
g()	G::result_type	Returns a value in the closed interval [G::min(), G::max()]. Has amortized constant complexity.

All following conditions are satisfied: G models uniform_random_bit_generator. std::invoke_result_t<G&> is an unsigned integer type. G provides a nested typedef name result_type, which denotes the same type as std::invoke_result_t<G&>.

(since C++20)

Notes

All RandomNumberEngines satisfy this requirement.

Standard library

The following standard library facilities expect a UniformRandomBitGenerator type.

random_shuffleshuffle (until C++17)(C++11)	randomly re-orders elements in a range (function template)
sample (C++17)	selects N random elements from a sequence (function template)
generate_canonical (C++11)	evenly distributes real values of given precision across [​0​, 1) (function template)
uniform_int_distribution (C++11)	produces integer values evenly distributed across a range (class template)
uniform_real_distribution (C++11)	produces real values evenly distributed across a range (class template)
all other random number distributions

The following standard library facilities satisfy UniformRandomBitGenerator without additionally satisfying RandomNumberEngine:

random_device (C++11)

non-deterministic random number generator using hardware entropy source (class)

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 2154 (P0898R3)	C++11	it was unclear whether G::min() and G::max() are required to be constant expressions	required

See also

uniform_random_bit_generator (C++20)

specifies that a type qualifies as a uniform random bit generator (concept)