Random date in C#
private Random gen = new Random();
DateTime RandomDay()
{
DateTime start = new DateTime(1995, 1, 1);
int range = (DateTime.Today - start).Days;
return start.AddDays(gen.Next(range));
}
For better performance if this will be called repeatedly, create the start
and gen
(and maybe even range
) variables outside of the function.
This is in slight response to Joel's comment about making a slighly more optimized version. Instead of returning a random date directly, why not return a generator function which can be called repeatedly to create a random date.
Func<DateTime> RandomDayFunc()
{
DateTime start = new DateTime(1995, 1, 1);
Random gen = new Random();
int range = ((TimeSpan)(DateTime.Today - start)).Days;
return () => start.AddDays(gen.Next(range));
}
I have taken @Joel Coehoorn answer and made the changes he adviced - put the variable out of the method and put all in class. Plus now the time is random too. Here is the result.
class RandomDateTime
{
DateTime start;
Random gen;
int range;
public RandomDateTime()
{
start = new DateTime(1995, 1, 1);
gen = new Random();
range = (DateTime.Today - start).Days;
}
public DateTime Next()
{
return start.AddDays(gen.Next(range)).AddHours(gen.Next(0,24)).AddMinutes(gen.Next(0,60)).AddSeconds(gen.Next(0,60));
}
}
And example how to use to write 100 random DateTimes to console:
RandomDateTime date = new RandomDateTime();
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(date.Next());
}