Compare random number engines

The random library provides a selection of random number generators, each with different strategies and properties. In this recipe, we examine a function to compare the different options by creating a histogram of their output.

How to do it…

In this recipe, we compare the different random number generators provided by the C++ random library:

• We start with some constants to provide uniform parameters for the random number generators:

  constexpr size_t n_samples{ 1000 };
  constexpr size_t n_partitions{ 10 };
  constexpr size_t n_max{ 50 };

n_samples is the number of samples to examine, n_partitions is the number of partitions in which to display the samples, and n_max is the maximum size of a bar in the histogram (this will vary some due to rounding).

These numbers provide a reasonable display of the differences between the engines. Increasing the ratio of samples versus partitions tends to smooth out the curves and obscure the...