How can I generate a random number within a range in Rust?

Question

Editor's note: This code example is from a version of Rust prior to 1.0 and is not syntactically valid Rust 1.0 code. Updated versions of this code produce different errors, but the answers still contain valuable information.

I came across the following example of how to generate a random number using Rust, but it doesn't appear to work. The example doesn't show which version of Rust it applies to, so perhaps it is out-of-date, or perhaps I got something wrong.

// http://static.rust-lang.org/doc/master/std/rand/trait.Rng.html

use std::rand;
use std::rand::Rng;

fn main() {
    let mut rng = rand::task_rng();
    let n: uint = rng.gen_range(0u, 10);
    println!("{}", n);
    let m: float = rng.gen_range(-40.0, 1.3e5);
    println!("{}", m);
}

When I attempt to compile this, the following error results:

test_rand002.rs:6:17: 6:39 error: type `@mut std::rand::IsaacRng` does not
implement any method in scope named `gen_range`
test_rand002.rs:6    let n: uint = rng.gen_range(0u, 10);
                                   ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
test_rand002.rs:8:18: 8:46 error: type `@mut std::rand::IsaacRng` does not
implement any method in scope named `gen_range`
test_rand002.rs:8    let m: float = rng.gen_range(-40.0, 1.3e5);
                                    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is another example (as follows) on the same page (above) that does work. However, it doesn't do exactly what I want, although I could adapt it.

use std::rand;
use std::rand::Rng;

fn main() {
    let mut rng = rand::task_rng();
    let x: uint = rng.gen();
    println!("{}", x);
    println!("{:?}", rng.gen::<(f64, bool)>());
}

How can I generate a "simple" random number using Rust (e.g.: i64) within a given range (e.g.: 0 to n)?

Answer 1

This generates a random number between 0 (inclusive) and 100 (exclusive) using Rng::gen_range:

use rand::Rng; // 0.8.0

fn main() {
    // Generate random number in the range [0, 99]
    let num = rand::thread_rng().gen_range(0..100);
    println!("{}", num);
}

Don't forget to add the rand dependency to Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
rand = "0.8"