Randomizing an Array?

Ruby
1

I’m trying to randomize an array, and this is what I have:

arr_set_unordered = randomizer(arr_set)

def randomizer(arr)
result = arr.collect { arr.slice!(rand arr.length) }
end

It does randomize it, but it only returns 3 values instead of the 5
values that I’m expecting. Any ideas why?

Thank you!

2

jwcooper wrote:

I’m trying to randomize an array…

Try this.

class Array

def randomize
duplicated_original, new_array = self.dup, self.class.new
new_array <<
duplicated_original.slice!(rand(duplicated_original.size)) until
new_array.size.eql?(self.size)
new_array
end

def randomize!
self.replace(randomize)
end

end

Enjoy!

3

Sorry, I guess a use-case would be helpful.

Call #randomize or #randomize! on any array to mix up its elements.

[ 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 ].randomize # [25, 15, 5, 20, 10]

4

jwcooper wrote:

I’m trying to randomize an array, and this is what I have:

arr_set_unordered = randomizer(arr_set)

def randomizer(arr)
result = arr.collect { arr.slice!(rand arr.length) }
end

It does randomize it, but it only returns 3 values instead of the 5
values that I’m expecting. Any ideas why?

Thank you!

ilans-Mac:~ ilan$ irb
irb(main):001:0> (1…10).to_a.sort {rand}
=> [10, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 2]
irb(main):002:0>

5

Ilan B. wrote:

jwcooper wrote:

I’m trying to randomize an array, and this is what I have:

[…]

ilans-Mac:~ ilan$ irb
irb(main):001:0> (1…10).to_a.sort {rand}
=> [10, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 2]
irb(main):002:0>

Don’t do this, better use (1…10).sort_by { rand }. Your version is
equivalent to (1…10).sort { 1 } and always creates the same
permutation for this array.

6

Florian F. wrote:

irb(main):001:0> (1…10).to_a.sort {rand}
=> [10, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 2]

Wow. That is squeaky clean, and a lot faster than my method. Thanks for
sharing. :slight_smile:

7

I found a library called ‘rand.rb’:
http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/rand/. It allows you to select an
element at random from an array and ‘scramble’ (randomize the order)
of them as well.

Description:

Helper methods for Enumerable, Array, Hash, and String
that let you pick a random item or shuffle the order of items.

Examples with Array:

[1,2,3,4].pick

=> 2 (pick random element)

[1,2,3,4].shuffle

=> [2, 4, 1, 3] (return random-sorted version)

a = [1,2,3,4]
a.pick!

=> 3

a

=> [1,2,4] (remove the picked element)

8

Florian F. wrote:

Don’t do this, better use (1…10).sort_by { rand }. Your version is
equivalent to (1…10).sort { 1 } and always creates the same
permutation for this array.

It’s random for me. Both work.

9

Daniel W. wrote:

Florian F. wrote:

Don’t do this, better use (1…10).sort_by { rand }. Your version is
equivalent to (1…10).sort { 1 } and always creates the same
permutation for this array.

It’s random for me. Both work.

No, really, it isn’t. It may “look random”, but try sorting (1…10) many
times and ponder the coincidence.

10

Daniel W. wrote:

Florian F. wrote:

Don’t do this, better use (1…10).sort_by { rand }. Your version is
equivalent to (1…10).sort { 1 } and always creates the same
permutation for this array.

It’s random for me. Both work.

Actually Frank is correct, my mistake, it should definetely be sort_by
and not sort… I should have reviewed it more thoroughly before
responding…

ilan

11

Florian F. wrote:

Daniel W. wrote:

Florian F. wrote:

Don’t do this, better use (1…10).sort_by { rand }. Your version is
equivalent to (1…10).sort { 1 } and always creates the same
permutation for this array.

It’s random for me. Both work.

No, really, it isn’t. It may “look random”, but try sorting (1…10) many
times and ponder the coincidence.

That’s because sort{ foo } expects foo to be in -1,0,1.

rand() is always [0, 1).

rand(2)-1 is (-1,1) however and thus will work just fine. :slight_smile:

One could do sort{rand <=> rand}, but that’s ~9x slower by my testing.

irb(main):163:0> (1…10).to_a.sort{rand }
=> [10, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 2]
irb(main):164:0> (1…10).to_a.sort{rand }
=> [10, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 2]
irb(main):165:0> (1…11).to_a.sort{rand }
=> [11, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 10, 2]
irb(main):166:0> (1…12).to_a.sort{rand }
=> [12, 7, 1, 8, 3, 9, 5, 10, 2, 11, 6, 4]

vs

irb(main):186:0> (1…12).to_a.sort{rand(2) -1}
=> [1, 2, 6, 11, 9, 4, 8, 7, 5, 10, 3, 12]
irb(main):187:0> (1…12).to_a.sort{rand(2) -1}
=> [1, 9, 8, 3, 5, 6, 11, 4, 2, 10, 7, 12]

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12

2008/5/15 Joao S. [email protected]:

times and ponder the coincidence.

That’s because sort{ foo } expects foo to be in -1,0,1.

I don’t think so - the sign is important:

irb(main):001:0> (1…10).sort { -1 }
=> [1, 2, 3, 7, 4, 9, 5, 8, 6, 10]
irb(main):002:0> (1…10).sort { 1 }
=> [10, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 2]
irb(main):003:0> (1…10).sort { 10 }
=> [10, 6, 1, 7, 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 2]
irb(main):004:0> (1…10).sort { -10 }
=> [1, 2, 3, 7, 4, 9, 5, 8, 6, 10]

rand() is always [0, 1).

Did you mean [0,1[?

rand(2)-1 is (-1,1) however and thus will work just fine. :slight_smile:

rand(2)-1 is (-1,0). I would rather do rand(3)-1 or rand(2) - 0.5 -
But all this is worse than sort_by { rand } IMHO.

Kind regards

robert