Random shuffling of an array

Question

I need to randomly shuffle the following Array:

int[] solutionArray = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1};

Is there any function to do that?

Answer 1

Using Collections to shuffle an array of primitive types is a bit of an overkill...

It is simple enough to implement the function yourself, using for example the Fisher–Yates shuffle:

import java.util.*;
import java.util.concurrent.ThreadLocalRandom;

class Test
{
  public static void main(String args[])
  {
    int[] solutionArray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11 };

    shuffleArray(solutionArray);
    for (int i = 0; i < solutionArray.length; i++)
    {
      System.out.print(solutionArray[i] + " ");
    }
    System.out.println();
  }

  // Implementing Fisher–Yates shuffle
  static void shuffleArray(int[] ar)
  {
    // If running on Java 6 or older, use `new Random()` on RHS here
    Random rnd = ThreadLocalRandom.current();
    for (int i = ar.length - 1; i > 0; i--)
    {
      int index = rnd.nextInt(i + 1);
      // Simple swap
      int a = ar[index];
      ar[index] = ar[i];
      ar[i] = a;
    }
  }
}

Answer 2

Here is a simple way using an ArrayList:

List<Integer> solution = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 1; i <= 6; i++) {
    solution.add(i);
}
Collections.shuffle(solution);

Answer 3

Here is a working and efficient Fisher–Yates shuffle array function:

private static void shuffleArray(int[] array)
{
    int index;
    Random random = new Random();
    for (int i = array.length - 1; i > 0; i--)
    {
        index = random.nextInt(i + 1);
        if (index != i)
        {
            array[index] ^= array[i];
            array[i] ^= array[index];
            array[index] ^= array[i];
        }
    }
}

or

private static void shuffleArray(int[] array)
{
    int index, temp;
    Random random = new Random();
    for (int i = array.length - 1; i > 0; i--)
    {
        index = random.nextInt(i + 1);
        temp = array[index];
        array[index] = array[i];
        array[i] = temp;
    }
}

Answer 4

Collections class has an efficient method for shuffling, that can be copied, so as not to depend on it:

/**
 * Usage:
 *    int[] array = {1, 2, 3};
 *    Util.shuffle(array);
 */
public class Util {

    private static Random random;

    /**
     * Code from method java.util.Collections.shuffle();
     */
    public static void shuffle(int[] array) {
        if (random == null) random = new Random();
        int count = array.length;
        for (int i = count; i > 1; i--) {
            swap(array, i - 1, random.nextInt(i));
        }
    }

    private static void swap(int[] array, int i, int j) {
        int temp = array[i];
        array[i] = array[j];
        array[j] = temp;
    }
}

Answer 5

Look at the Collections class, specifically shuffle(...).

Answer 6

You have a couple options here. A list is a bit different than an array when it comes to shuffling.

As you can see below, an array is faster than a list, and a primitive array is faster than an object array.

Sample Durations

List<Integer> Shuffle: 43133ns
    Integer[] Shuffle: 31884ns
        int[] Shuffle: 25377ns

---

Below, are three different implementations of a shuffle. You should only use Collections.shuffle if you are dealing with a collection. There is no need to wrap your array into a collection just to sort it. The methods below are very simple to implement.

ShuffleUtil Class

import java.lang.reflect.Array;
import java.util.*;

public class ShuffleUtil<T> {
    private static final int[] EMPTY_INT_ARRAY = new int[0];
    private static final int SHUFFLE_THRESHOLD = 5;

    private static Random rand;

Main Method

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        List<Integer> list = null;
        Integer[] arr = null;
        int[] iarr = null;

        long start = 0;
        int cycles = 1000;
        int n = 1000;

        // Shuffle List<Integer>
        start = System.nanoTime();
        list = range(n);
        for (int i = 0; i < cycles; i++) {
            ShuffleUtil.shuffle(list);
        }
        System.out.printf("%22s: %dns%n", "List<Integer> Shuffle", (System.nanoTime() - start) / cycles);

        // Shuffle Integer[]
        start = System.nanoTime();
        arr = toArray(list);
        for (int i = 0; i < cycles; i++) {
            ShuffleUtil.shuffle(arr);
        }
        System.out.printf("%22s: %dns%n", "Integer[] Shuffle", (System.nanoTime() - start) / cycles);

        // Shuffle int[]
        start = System.nanoTime();
        iarr = toPrimitive(arr);
        for (int i = 0; i < cycles; i++) {
            ShuffleUtil.shuffle(iarr);
        }
        System.out.printf("%22s: %dns%n", "int[] Shuffle", (System.nanoTime() - start) / cycles);
    }

Shuffling a Generic List

    // ================================================================
    // Shuffle List<T> (java.lang.Collections)
    // ================================================================
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public static <T> void shuffle(List<T> list) {
        if (rand == null) {
            rand = new Random();
        }
        int size = list.size();
        if (size < SHUFFLE_THRESHOLD || list instanceof RandomAccess) {
            for (int i = size; i > 1; i--) {
                swap(list, i - 1, rand.nextInt(i));
            }
        } else {
            Object arr[] = list.toArray();

            for (int i = size; i > 1; i--) {
                swap(arr, i - 1, rand.nextInt(i));
            }

            ListIterator<T> it = list.listIterator();
            int i = 0;

            while (it.hasNext()) {
                it.next();
                it.set((T) arr[i++]);
            }
        }
    }

    public static <T> void swap(List<T> list, int i, int j) {
        final List<T> l = list;
        l.set(i, l.set(j, l.get(i)));
    }

    public static <T> List<T> shuffled(List<T> list) {
        List<T> copy = copyList(list);
        shuffle(copy);
        return copy;
    }

Shuffling a Generic Array

    // ================================================================
    // Shuffle T[]
    // ================================================================
    public static <T> void shuffle(T[] arr) {
        if (rand == null) {
            rand = new Random();
        }

        for (int i = arr.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
            swap(arr, i, rand.nextInt(i + 1));
        }
    }

    public static <T> void swap(T[] arr, int i, int j) {
        T tmp = arr[i];
        arr[i] = arr[j];
        arr[j] = tmp;
    }

    public static <T> T[] shuffled(T[] arr) {
        T[] copy = Arrays.copyOf(arr, arr.length);
        shuffle(copy);
        return copy;
    }

Shuffling a Primitive Array

    // ================================================================
    // Shuffle int[]
    // ================================================================
    public static <T> void shuffle(int[] arr) {
        if (rand == null) {
            rand = new Random();
        }

        for (int i = arr.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
            swap(arr, i, rand.nextInt(i + 1));
        }
    }

    public static <T> void swap(int[] arr, int i, int j) {
        int tmp = arr[i];
        arr[i] = arr[j];
        arr[j] = tmp;
    }

    public static int[] shuffled(int[] arr) {
        int[] copy = Arrays.copyOf(arr, arr.length);
        shuffle(copy);
        return copy;
    }

Utility Methods

Simple utility methods to copy and convert arrays to lists and vice-versa.

    // ================================================================
    // Utility methods
    // ================================================================
    protected static <T> List<T> copyList(List<T> list) {
        List<T> copy = new ArrayList<T>(list.size());
        for (T item : list) {
            copy.add(item);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    protected static int[] toPrimitive(Integer[] array) {
        if (array == null) {
            return null;
        } else if (array.length == 0) {
            return EMPTY_INT_ARRAY;
        }
        final int[] result = new int[array.length];
        for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
            result[i] = array[i].intValue();
        }
        return result;
    }

    protected static Integer[] toArray(List<Integer> list) {
        return toArray(list, Integer.class);
    }

    protected static <T> T[] toArray(List<T> list, Class<T> clazz) {
        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        final T[] arr = list.toArray((T[]) Array.newInstance(clazz, list.size()));
        return arr;
    }

Range Class

Generates a range of values, similar to Python's range function.

    // ================================================================
    // Range class for generating a range of values.
    // ================================================================
    protected static List<Integer> range(int n) {
        return toList(new Range(n), new ArrayList<Integer>());
    }

    protected static <T> List<T> toList(Iterable<T> iterable) {
        return toList(iterable, new ArrayList<T>());
    }

    protected static <T> List<T> toList(Iterable<T> iterable, List<T> destination) {
        addAll(destination, iterable.iterator());

        return destination;
    }

    protected static <T> void addAll(Collection<T> collection, Iterator<T> iterator) {
        while (iterator.hasNext()) {
            collection.add(iterator.next());
        }
    }

    private static class Range implements Iterable<Integer> {
        private int start;
        private int stop;
        private int step;

        private Range(int n) {
            this(0, n, 1);
        }

        private Range(int start, int stop) {
            this(start, stop, 1);
        }

        private Range(int start, int stop, int step) {
            this.start = start;
            this.stop = stop;
            this.step = step;
        }

        @Override
        public Iterator<Integer> iterator() {
            final int min = start;
            final int max = stop / step;

            return new Iterator<Integer>() {
                private int current = min;

                @Override
                public boolean hasNext() {
                    return current < max;
                }

                @Override
                public Integer next() {
                    if (hasNext()) {
                        return current++ * step;
                    } else {
                        throw new NoSuchElementException("Range reached the end");
                    }
                }

                @Override
                public void remove() {
                    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Can't remove values from a Range");
                }
            };
        }
    }
}

Answer 7

Here is a complete solution using the Collections.shuffle approach:

public static void shuffleArray(int[] array) {
  List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<>();
  for (int i : array) {
    list.add(i);
  }

  Collections.shuffle(list);

  for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
    array[i] = list.get(i);
  }    
}

Note that it suffers due to Java's inability to smoothly translate between int[] and Integer[] (and thus int[] and List<Integer>).

Answer 8

Using ArrayList<Integer> can help you solving the problem of shuffling without applying much of logic and consuming less time. Here is what I suggest:

ArrayList<Integer> x = new ArrayList<Integer>();
for(int i=1; i<=add.length(); i++)
{
    x.add(i);
}
Collections.shuffle(x);

Answer 9

The following code will achieve a random ordering on the array.

// Shuffle the elements in the array
Collections.shuffle(Arrays.asList(array));

from: http://www.programcreek.com/2012/02/java-method-to-shuffle-an-int-array-with-random-order/

Answer 10

You can use java 8 now:

Collections.addAll(list, arr);
Collections.shuffle(list);
cardsList.toArray(arr);

Answer 11

Random rnd = new Random();
for (int i = ar.length - 1; i > 0; i--)
{
  int index = rnd.nextInt(i + 1);
  // Simple swap
  int a = ar[index];
  ar[index] = ar[i];
  ar[i] = a;
}

By the way, I've noticed that this code returns a ar.length - 1 number of elements, so if your array has 5 elements, the new shuffled array will have 4 elements. This happens because the for loop says i>0. If you change to i>=0, you get all elements shuffled.

Answer 12

Here is a solution using Apache Commons Math 3.x (for int[] arrays only):

MathArrays.shuffle(array);

http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-math/javadocs/api-3.6.1/org/apache/commons/math3/util/MathArrays.html#shuffle(int[])

Alternatively, Apache Commons Lang 3.6 introduced new shuffle methods to the ArrayUtils class (for objects and any primitive type).

ArrayUtils.shuffle(array);

http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-lang/javadocs/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang3/ArrayUtils.html#shuffle-int:A-

Answer 13

Here is a Generics version for arrays:

import java.util.Random;

public class Shuffle<T> {

    private final Random rnd;

    public Shuffle() {
        rnd = new Random();
    }

    /**
     * Fisher–Yates shuffle.
     */
    public void shuffle(T[] ar) {
        for (int i = ar.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
            int index = rnd.nextInt(i + 1);
            T a = ar[index];
            ar[index] = ar[i];
            ar[i] = a;
        }
    }
}

Considering that ArrayList is basically just an array, it may be advisable to work with an ArrayList instead of the explicit array and use Collections.shuffle(). Performance tests however, do not show any significant difference between the above and Collections.sort():

Shuffe<Integer>.shuffle(...) performance: 576084 shuffles per second
Collections.shuffle(ArrayList<Integer>) performance: 629400 shuffles per second
MathArrays.shuffle(int[]) performance: 53062 shuffles per second

The Apache Commons implementation MathArrays.shuffle is limited to int[] and the performance penalty is likely due to the random number generator being used.

Answer 14

I saw some miss information in some answers so i decided to add a new one.

Java collections Arrays.asList takes var-arg of type T (T ...). If you pass a primitive array (int array), asList method will infer and generate a List<int[]>, which is a one element list (the one element is the primitive array). if you shuffle this one element list, it won`t change any thing.

So, first you have to convert you primitive array to Wrapper object array. for this you can use ArrayUtils.toObject method from apache.commons.lang. then pass the generated array to a List and finaly shuffle that.

  int[] intArr = {1,2,3};
  List<Integer> integerList = Arrays.asList(ArrayUtils.toObject(array));
  Collections.shuffle(integerList);
  //now! elements in integerList are shuffled!

Answer 15

Here's another way to shuffle a list

public List<Integer> shuffleArray(List<Integer> a) {
    List<Integer> b = new ArrayList<Integer>();
    while (a.size() != 0) {
        int arrayIndex = (int) (Math.random() * (a.size()));
        b.add(a.get(arrayIndex));
        a.remove(a.get(arrayIndex));
    }
    return b;
}

Pick a random number from the original list and save it in another list.Then remove the number from the original list.The size of the original list will keep decreasing by one until all elements are moved to the new list.

Answer 16

A simple solution for Groovy:

solutionArray.sort{ new Random().nextInt() }

This will sort all elements of the array list randomly which archives the desired result of shuffling all elements.

Answer 17

Using Guava's Ints.asList() it is as simple as:

Collections.shuffle(Ints.asList(array));

Answer 18

Using the Random Class

  public static void randomizeArray(int[] arr) {

      Random rGenerator = new Random(); // Create an instance of the random class 
      for (int i =0; i< arr.length;i++ ) {
          //Swap the positions...

          int rPosition = rGenerator.nextInt(arr.length); // Generates an integer within the range (Any number from 0 - arr.length)
          int temp = arr[i]; // variable temp saves the value of the current array index;
          arr[i] = arr[rPosition];  // array at the current position (i) get the value of the random generated 
          arr[rPosition] = temp; // the array at the position of random generated gets the value of temp

      }

      for(int i = 0; i<arr.length; i++) {
          System.out.print(arr[i]); //Prints out the array
      } 

  }

Answer 19

I'm weighing in on this very popular question because nobody has written a shuffle-copy version. Style is borrowed heavily from Arrays.java, because who isn't pillaging Java technology these days? Generic and int implementations included.

   /**
    * Shuffles elements from {@code original} into a newly created array.
    *
    * @param original the original array
    * @return the new, shuffled array
    * @throws NullPointerException if {@code original == null}
    */
   @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
   public static <T> T[] shuffledCopy(T[] original) {
      int originalLength = original.length; // For exception priority compatibility.
      Random random = new Random();
      T[] result = (T[]) Array.newInstance(original.getClass().getComponentType(), originalLength);

      for (int i = 0; i < originalLength; i++) {
         int j = random.nextInt(i+1);
         result[i] = result[j];
         result[j] = original[i];
      }

      return result;
   }


   /**
    * Shuffles elements from {@code original} into a newly created array.
    *
    * @param original the original array
    * @return the new, shuffled array
    * @throws NullPointerException if {@code original == null}
    */
   public static int[] shuffledCopy(int[] original) {
      int originalLength = original.length;
      Random random = new Random();
      int[] result = new int[originalLength];

      for (int i = 0; i < originalLength; i++) {
         int j = random.nextInt(i+1);
         result[i] = result[j];
         result[j] = original[i];
      }

      return result;
   }

Answer 20

This is knuth shuffle algorithm.

public class Knuth { 

    // this class should not be instantiated
    private Knuth() { }

    /**
     * Rearranges an array of objects in uniformly random order
     * (under the assumption that <tt>Math.random()</tt> generates independent
     * and uniformly distributed numbers between 0 and 1).
     * @param a the array to be shuffled
     */
    public static void shuffle(Object[] a) {
        int n = a.length;
        for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            // choose index uniformly in [i, n-1]
            int r = i + (int) (Math.random() * (n - i));
            Object swap = a[r];
            a[r] = a[i];
            a[i] = swap;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Reads in a sequence of strings from standard input, shuffles
     * them, and prints out the results.
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // read in the data
        String[] a = StdIn.readAllStrings();

        // shuffle the array
        Knuth.shuffle(a);

        // print results.
        for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++)
            StdOut.println(a[i]);
    }
}

Answer 21

There is another way also, not post yet

//that way, send many object types diferentes
public anotherWayToReciveParameter(Object... objects)
{
    //ready with array
    final int length =objects.length;
    System.out.println(length);
    //for ready same list
    Arrays.asList(objects);
}

that way more easy, depended of the context

Answer 22

The most simple solution for this Random Shuffling in an Array.

String location[] = {"delhi","banglore","mathura","lucknow","chandigarh","mumbai"};
int index;
String temp;
Random random = new Random();
for(int i=1;i<location.length;i++)
{
    index = random.nextInt(i+1);
    temp = location[index];
    location[index] = location[i];
    location[i] = temp;
    System.out.println("Location Based On Random Values :"+location[i]);
}

Answer 23

Simplest code to shuffle:

import java.util.*;
public class ch {
    public static void main(String args[])
    {
        Scanner sc=new Scanner(System.in);
        ArrayList<Integer> l=new ArrayList<Integer>(10);
        for(int i=0;i<10;i++)
            l.add(sc.nextInt());
        Collections.shuffle(l);
        for(int j=0;j<10;j++)
            System.out.println(l.get(j));       
    }
}