Ruby Array Randomize
I needed the ability to randomize the order of an array. This is useful when you have a set collection of questions in a survey that you want to shuffle before you present them to the user. After looking around a bit, I didn’t find anything that worked. Here is what I pieced together with my limited knowledge of Ruby.
# Created by Brig R.Lamoreaux
# Date: 11 July 2007
# Time: 10: 38 am
# Randomize the contents of an Array
class Array
def randomize a = self.dup
result = []
self.length.times
do result << a.slice!(rand(a.length)) end
return result
end def
randomize!a = self.dup result = []
self.length.times do result << a.slice!(rand(a.length)) end
self.replace result
end
end
Here are some test that make sure it really works.
puts "Randomize Tests" x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] print "x: " x.each do |i| print "#{i}" end y = x.randomize print "\ny: " y.each do |i| print "#{i}" end x.randomize! # x is now [3, 5, 4, 1, 2] print "\nx: " x.each do |i| print "#{i}" end x.randomize! # x is now [3, 5, 4, 1, 2] print "\nx: " x.each do |i| print "#{i}" end
Special thanks to syntaxhighlighter on providing styles for ruby syntax highlighting.
