Setting seed boost::random

Question

I would like to reset random sequences by using different seed numbers. When running this test code:

boost::mt19937 gener(1);
boost::normal_distribution<> normal(0,1);
boost::variate_generator<boost::mt19937&,boost::normal_distribution<> > rng(gener, normal);
cout << rng() << endl;
cout << rng() << endl;
cout << rng() << endl;
gener.seed(2);
cout << rng() << endl;
cout << rng() << endl;
gener.seed(1);
cout << rng() << endl;
gener.seed(2);
cout << rng() << endl;
gener.seed(3);
cout << rng() << endl;

I get the following output:

# seed(1) via constructor
-2.971829031
1.706951063
-0.430498971
# seed(2)
-2.282022417
-0.5887503675
# seed(1)
0.2504171986
# seed(2)
-0.5887503675
# seed(3)
0.2504171986

Obviously I'm doing something very wrong. How may I overcome this problem?

Answer 1

Following Jim, Alan and Igor suggestions made some changes to the code: rng.engine().seed() instead of gener.seed(), and called rng.distribution().reset() after the call to rng.engine().seed() and it worked like a charm.

Many thanks!

Answer 2

You should call normal.reset() after the call to gener.seed(). That is specified to ensure that the output of normal will not depend on any previous output from gener.

(The distribution is probably caching some state that you need to clear out.)