absl::BitGenRef

A type‐erasing, non‐owning reference to any uniform random bit generator.

Synopsis

Declared in <absl/random/bit_gen_ref.h>

class BitGenRef;

Description

absl::BitGenRef provides a generator‐agnostic non‐owning "reference" interface for use in place of any specific uniform random bit generator (URBG). This class may be used for both Abseil (e.g. absl::BitGen, absl::InsecureBitGen) and Standard library (e.g std::mt19937, std::minstd_rand) bit generators.

Like other reference classes, absl::BitGenRef does not own the underlying bit generator, and the underlying instance must outlive the absl::BitGenRef.

absl::BitGenRef is particularly useful when used with an absl::MockingBitGen to test specific paths in functions which use random values.

Example: void TakesBitGenRef(absl::BitGenRef gen) { int x = absl::Uniform<int>(gen, 0, 1000); }