std::uniform_real_distribution always returns infinity

Question

When I run this code:

double getRandomDouble() {
    static std::mt19937 entropy_ = std::mt19937();
    std::uniform_real_distribution<double> distribution;
    distribution.param(typename decltype(distribution)::param_type(std::numeric_limits<double>::lowest(),
                                                                   std::numeric_limits<double>::max()));
    return distribution(entropy_);
}

It always returns infinity (at least in GCC8.1 & clang 11.0.1. In MSVC 14.16.27023 it asserts)

Here is a working demonstration in GodBolt

I would expect this function to return any random double value, what is happening here?

Answer 1

The choice of parameters violates the precondition of std::uniform_real_distribution (c.f. §26.6.9.2.2.2).

The preconditions being a ≤ b and b - a ≤ numeric_limits<T>::max(), where a and b are the min and max of the distribution. Using numeric_limits<double>::lowest() and numeric_limits<double>::max() would go against this.

As suggested by Ted, using a = -max()/2.0, b = max()/2.0 would be a better choice.