C – How to Generate Random Numbers Without rand() Function

You should call srand() before calling rand to initialize the random number generator.

Either call it with a specific seed, and you will always get the same pseudo-random sequence

#include <stdlib.h>

int main ()
{
  srand ( 123 );
  int random_number = rand();
  return 0;
}

or call it with a changing sources, ie the time function

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>

int main ()
{
  srand ( time(NULL) );
  int random_number = rand();
  return 0;
}

In response to Moon's Comment rand() generates a random number with an equal probability between 0 and RAND_MAX (a macro pre-defined in stdlib.h)

You can then map this value to a smaller range, e.g.

int random_value = rand(); //between 0 and RAND_MAX

//you can mod the result
int N = 33;
int rand_capped = random_value % N;  //between 0 and 32
int S = 50;
int rand_range = rand_capped + S; //between 50 and 82

//you can convert it to a float
float unit_random = random_value / (float) RAND_MAX; //between 0 and 1 (floating point)

This might be sufficient for most uses, but its worth pointing out that in the first case using the mod operator introduces a slight bias if N does not divide evenly into RAND_MAX+1.

Random number generators are interesting and complex, it is widely said that the rand() generator in the C standard library is not a great quality random number generator, read (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_number_generation for a definition of quality).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_twister (source http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html ) is a popular high quality random number generator.

Also, I am not aware of arc4rand() or random() so I cannot comment.

You're seeding inside the loop (with the same value because of how quickly the loop will be executed), which causes the random number generated to be the same each time.

You need to move your seed function outside the loop:

/* Initialize random number */
srand((unsigned int)time(NULL));

for(i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
    /* Added random number (simulate seconds) */
    add((rand() % 30) + 1);
}