One way to do this is to create an array with all 9 digits, pick a random one and remove it from the list.
Something like this:
uint_fast8_t digits[]={1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}; //only 1-9 are allowed, 0 is not allowed
uint_fast8_t left=4; //How many digits are left to create
unsigned result=0; //Store the 4-digit number here
while(left--)
{
uint_fast8_t digit=getRand(9-4+left); //pick a random index
result=result*10+digits[digit];
//Move all digits above the selcted one 1 index down.
//This removes the picked digit from the array.
while(digit<8)
{
digits[digit]=digits[digit+1];
digit++;
}
}
You said you need a solution without arrays. Luckily, we can store up to 16 4 bit numbers in a single uint64_t. Here is an example that uses a uint64_t to store the digit list so that no array is needed.
#include <stdint.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
unsigned getRand(unsigned max)
{
return rand()%(max+1);
}
//Creates a uint64_t that is used as an array.
//Use no more than 16 values and don't use values >0x0F
//The last argument will have index 0
uint64_t fakeArrayCreate(uint_fast8_t count, ...)
{
uint64_t result=0;
va_list args;
va_start (args, count);
while(count--)
{
result=(result<<4) | va_arg(args,int);
}
return result;
}
uint_fast8_t fakeArrayGet(uint64_t array, uint_fast8_t index)
{
return array>>(4*index)&0x0F;
}
uint64_t fakeArraySet(uint64_t array, uint_fast8_t index, uint_fast8_t value)
{
array = array & ~((uint64_t)0x0F<<(4*index));
array = array | ((uint64_t)value<<(4*index));
return array;
}
unsigned getRandomDigits(void)
{
uint64_t digits = fakeArrayCreate(9,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1);
uint_fast8_t left=4;
unsigned result=0;
while(left--)
{
uint_fast8_t digit=getRand(9-4+left);
result=result*10+fakeArrayGet(digits,digit);
//Move all digits above the selcted one 1 index down.
//This removes the picked digit from the array.
while(digit<8)
{
digits=fakeArraySet(digits,digit,fakeArrayGet(digits,digit+1));
digit++;
}
}
return result;
}
//Test our function
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
srand(atoi(argv[1]));
printf("%u\n",getRandomDigits());
}
