Random number in long range, is this the way?

Why don't you just generate two random Int32 values and make one Int64 out of them?

long LongRandom(long min, long max, Random rand) {
    long result = rand.Next((Int32)(min >> 32), (Int32)(max >> 32));
    result = (result << 32);
    result = result | (long)rand.Next((Int32)min, (Int32)max);
    return result;
}

Sorry, I forgot to add boundaries the first time. Added min and max params. You can test it like that:

long r = LongRandom(100000000000000000, 100000000000000050, new Random());

Values of r will lie in the desired range.

EDIT: the implementation above is flawed. It's probably worth it to generate 4 16-bit integers rather than 2 32-bit ones to avoid signed-unsigned problems. But at this point the solution loses its elegancy, so I think it's best to stick with Random.NextBytes version:

long LongRandom(long min, long max, Random rand) {
    byte[] buf = new byte[8];
    rand.NextBytes(buf);
    long longRand = BitConverter.ToInt64(buf, 0);

    return (Math.Abs(longRand % (max - min)) + min);
}

It looks pretty well in terms of value distribution (judging by very simple tests I ran).


Some other answers here have two issues: having a modulo bias, and failing to correctly handle values of max = long.MaxValue. (Martin's answer has neither problem, but his code is unreasonably slow with large ranges.)

The following code will fix all of those issues:

//Working with ulong so that modulo works correctly with values > long.MaxValue
ulong uRange = (ulong)(max - min);

//Prevent a modolo bias; see https://stackoverflow.com/a/10984975/238419
//for more information.
//In the worst case, the expected number of calls is 2 (though usually it's
//much closer to 1) so this loop doesn't really hurt performance at all.
ulong ulongRand;
do
{
    byte[] buf = new byte[8];
    random.NextBytes(buf);
    ulongRand = (ulong)BitConverter.ToInt64(buf, 0);
} while (ulongRand > ulong.MaxValue - ((ulong.MaxValue % uRange) + 1) % uRange);

return (long)(ulongRand % uRange) + min;

The following fully-documented class can be dropped into your codebase to implement the above solution easily and brain-free. Like all code on Stackoverflow, it's licensed under CC-attribution, so you can feel free to use to use it for basically whatever you want.

using System;

namespace MyNamespace
{
    public static class RandomExtensionMethods
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a random long from min (inclusive) to max (exclusive)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="random">The given random instance</param>
        /// <param name="min">The inclusive minimum bound</param>
        /// <param name="max">The exclusive maximum bound.  Must be greater than min</param>
        public static long NextLong(this Random random, long min, long max)
        {
            if (max <= min)
                throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("max", "max must be > min!");

            //Working with ulong so that modulo works correctly with values > long.MaxValue
            ulong uRange = (ulong)(max - min);

            //Prevent a modolo bias; see https://stackoverflow.com/a/10984975/238419
            //for more information.
            //In the worst case, the expected number of calls is 2 (though usually it's
            //much closer to 1) so this loop doesn't really hurt performance at all.
            ulong ulongRand;
            do
            {
                byte[] buf = new byte[8];
                random.NextBytes(buf);
                ulongRand = (ulong)BitConverter.ToInt64(buf, 0);
            } while (ulongRand > ulong.MaxValue - ((ulong.MaxValue % uRange) + 1) % uRange);

            return (long)(ulongRand % uRange) + min;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a random long from 0 (inclusive) to max (exclusive)
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="random">The given random instance</param>
        /// <param name="max">The exclusive maximum bound.  Must be greater than 0</param>
        public static long NextLong(this Random random, long max)
        {
            return random.NextLong(0, max);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a random long over all possible values of long (except long.MaxValue, similar to
        /// random.Next())
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="random">The given random instance</param>
        public static long NextLong(this Random random)
        {
            return random.NextLong(long.MinValue, long.MaxValue);
        }
    }
}

Usage:

Random random = new Random();
long foobar = random.NextLong(0, 1234567890L);

This creates a random Int64 by using random bytes, avoiding modulo bias by retrying if the number is outside the safe range.

static class RandomExtensions
{
   public static long RandomLong(this Random rnd)
   {
      byte[] buffer = new byte[8];
      rnd.NextBytes (buffer);
      return BitConverter.ToInt64(buffer, 0);
   }

   public static long RandomLong(this Random rnd, long min, long max)
   {
      EnsureMinLEQMax(ref min, ref max);
      long numbersInRange = unchecked(max - min + 1);
      if (numbersInRange < 0)
         throw new ArgumentException("Size of range between min and max must be less than or equal to Int64.MaxValue");

      long randomOffset = RandomLong(rnd);
      if (IsModuloBiased(randomOffset, numbersInRange))
         return RandomLong(rnd, min, max); // Try again
      else
         return min + PositiveModuloOrZero(randomOffset, numbersInRange);
   }

   static bool IsModuloBiased(long randomOffset, long numbersInRange)
   {
      long greatestCompleteRange = numbersInRange * (long.MaxValue / numbersInRange);
      return randomOffset > greatestCompleteRange;
   }

   static long PositiveModuloOrZero(long dividend, long divisor)
   {
      long mod;
      Math.DivRem(dividend, divisor, out mod);
      if(mod < 0)
         mod += divisor;
      return mod;
   }

   static void EnsureMinLEQMax(ref long min, ref long max)
   {
      if(min <= max)
         return;
      long temp = min;
      min = max;
      max = temp;
   }
}

Tags:

Random

C# 4.0