Dear List, I am using the following (typical) code to use boost::random --------------------------------------------- typedef boost::mt19937 generator_type; typedef boost::variate_generator<generator_type&, boost::uniform_real<double> > rand01Generator; generator_type random_gen; boost::uniform_real<double> distrib(0.0, 1.0); rand01Generator rand01(random_gen, distrib); ---------------------------------------------- I would like to give users the ability to choose random number generators through something like: // global generator that is being used everywhere generator global_generator; void setGenerator(string type) { if(type == "mt19937") global_generator = ... ... } However, the generators are templates so the type of global generator can not be specified. Is there any workaround? It seems that a wrapper class with instances of all available generators and some if-else code can do this but there should be better ideas. Many thanks in advance. Bo