I wrote this code snippet to generate random dates:
std::time_t curr_time = time(0);
std::time_t ten_years = 365 * 12 * 30 * 24 * 60;
std::time_t rand_date = curr_time - std::rand() % ten_years;
tm *ltm = std::localtime(&rand_date);
std::cout << ltm->tm_year + 1900 << " " << ltm->tm_mon + 1 << " " << ltm->tm_mday << std::endl;
However it always gives me the current date. What am i doing wrong?
std::rand() may return rather small values, 0..32767 is the minimum range, and does so on some popular 32-bit platforms (MSVC among them). With time_t in seconds this only gives you about eight hours of random noise.
Try combining the results from a pair of std::rand calls instead. E.g.
(std::time_t) std::rand() * RAND_MAX + std::rand() or switch to a better random number generator.
I would suggest you don't modify a time_t directly, as the implementation is not specified by the standard. Better to convert it a la this question: How to add one day to a time obtained from time()
I would suggest to do it differently, based on the CPP Reference:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
time_t timer;
struct tm x_years;
struct tm* current;
int how_many_years = 10;
srand (time(NULL));
int randomYear = (rand()%how_many_years)+1;
int randomMonth = (rand()%12)+1;
int randomDays = (rand()%30)+1;
time(&timer); /* get current time; same as: timer = time(NULL) */
current = localtime(&timer);
x_years.tm_hour = 0;
x_years.tm_min = 0;
x_years.tm_sec = 0;
x_years.tm_year = current->tm_year - randomYear;
x_years.tm_mon = (current->tm_mon - randomMonth) <= 0 ? current->tm_mon + (12-randomMonth) : current->tm_mon - randomMonth;
x_years.tm_mday = (current->tm_mday - randomDays) <= 0 ? current->tm_mday + (30-randomDays) : current->tm_mday - randomDays;
//returns seconds ever since the random generated date until now
cout << "Years rolled back: " << randomYear << endl;
cout << "Months rolled back: " << randomMonth << endl;
cout << "Days rolled back: " << randomDays << endl;
cout << endl;
cout << "Current Year: " << current->tm_year+1900 << endl;
cout << "Current Month: " << current->tm_mon << endl;
cout << "Current Day: " << current->tm_mday << endl;
cout << endl;
cout << "Year: " << x_years.tm_year+1900 << endl;
cout << "Month: " << x_years.tm_mon << endl;
cout << "Day: " << x_years.tm_mday << endl;
}
EDIT
I have edited the code, and with it, you can even select how many years you want to go back. Basically, you go back X years in the time, and you can get the date rollbacked in the x_years struct.
Hope this helped!
The following solution uses C++11 with an internal uniform_int_distribution:
// uniform_time_dist.h
#include <chrono>
#include <random>
template <class TimePoint>
class uniform_time_distribution{
public:
uniform_time_distribution(TimePoint start, TimePoint end)
: m_start(start), m_end(end),
m_seconds(std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::seconds>(end - start))
{}
template <class Generator>
TimePoint operator()(Generator && g){
std::uniform_int_distribution<std::chrono::seconds::rep> d(0, m_seconds.count());
return m_start + std::chrono::seconds(d(g));
}
private:
TimePoint m_start;
TimePoint m_end;
std::chrono::seconds m_seconds;
};
You can use it like any other distribution function with a generator:
// uniform_time_dist.h -- continuation
template <class TimePoint>
TimePoint randomTime(TimePoint start, TimePoint end){
static std::random_device rd;
static std::mt19937 gen(rd());
uniform_time_distribution<TimePoint> t(start, end);
return t(gen);
}
You can combine this method with your time_t functions by using clock::to_time_t:
#include <iostream>
#include "uniform_time_dist.h" // see above
using namespace std::chrono;
int main(){
auto k = system_clock::to_time_t(randomTime(
system_clock::now(),
system_clock::now() + hours(24 * 365 * 10)));
std::cout << std::ctime(&k);
}
Note that the class above is just a small sketch, you should be able to improve it vastly in order to match the other distribution functions.
I managed to create a solution based on Phil's answer:
time_t currTime = time(0);
tm *ltm = std::localtime(&currTime);
ltm->tm_mday = std::rand() % 3650 * -1;
time_t next = mktime(ltm);
ltm = std::localtime(&next);
std::cout << ltm->tm_year + 1900 << " " << ltm->tm_mon + 1 << " " << ltm->tm_mday << std::endl;
If you are using boost libs you can use this class that I wrote to get random dates:
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>
#include <boost/random/mersenne_twister.hpp>
#include <boost/random/uniform_int_distribution.hpp>
#include <boost/random/variate_generator.hpp>
#include "boost/date_time/posix_time/posix_time.hpp"
#include "boost/date_time/gregorian/gregorian.hpp"
using namespace std;
using namespace boost;
using namespace boost::posix_time;
using namespace boost::gregorian;
class Randomizer {
private:
static const bool debug_mode = false;
random::mt19937 rng_;
// The private constructor so that the user can not directly instantiate
Randomizer() {
if(debug_mode==true){
this->rng_ = random::mt19937();
}else{
this->rng_ = random::mt19937(current_time_nanoseconds());
}
};
int current_time_nanoseconds(){
struct timespec tm;
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &tm);
return tm.tv_nsec;
}
// C++ 03
// ========
// Dont forget to declare these two. You want to make sure they
// are unacceptable otherwise you may accidentally get copies of
// your singleton appearing.
Randomizer(Randomizer const&); // Don't Implement
void operator=(Randomizer const&); // Don't implement
public:
static Randomizer& get_instance(){
// The only instance of the class is created at the first call get_instance ()
// and will be destroyed only when the program exits
static Randomizer instance;
return instance;
}
bool method() { return true; };
int rand(unsigned int floor, unsigned int ceil){
random::uniform_int_distribution<> rand_ = random::uniform_int_distribution<> (floor,ceil);
return (rand_(rng_));
}
// Is not considering the millisecons
time_duration rand_time_duration(){
boost::posix_time::time_duration floor(0, 0, 0, 0);
boost::posix_time::time_duration ceil(23, 59, 59, 0);
unsigned int rand_seconds = rand(floor.total_seconds(), ceil.total_seconds());
return seconds(rand_seconds);
}
date rand_date_from_epoch_to_now(){
date now = second_clock::local_time().date();
return rand_date_from_epoch_to_ceil(now);
}
date rand_date_from_epoch_to_ceil(date ceil_date){
date epoch = ptime(date(1970,1,1)).date();
return rand_date_in_interval(epoch, ceil_date);
}
date rand_date_in_interval(date floor_date, date ceil_date){
return rand_ptime_in_interval(ptime(floor_date), ptime(ceil_date)).date();
}
ptime rand_ptime_from_epoch_to_now(){
ptime now = second_clock::local_time();
return rand_ptime_from_epoch_to_ceil(now);
}
ptime rand_ptime_from_epoch_to_ceil(ptime ceil_date){
ptime epoch = ptime(date(1970,1,1));
return rand_ptime_in_interval(epoch, ceil_date);
}
ptime rand_ptime_in_interval(ptime floor_date, ptime ceil_date){
time_duration const diff = ceil_date - floor_date;
long long gap_seconds = diff.total_seconds();
long long step_seconds = Randomizer::get_instance().rand(0, gap_seconds);
return floor_date + seconds(step_seconds);
}
};
