Randomly pick element in array then remove from the array

Question

I have an array of phrases. I'd like to randomly pick phrases from the array in a loop. I don't want to pick the same phrase more then once in the loop. I thought I could randomly pick the phrase and then delete it before the next loop.

http://codepad.org/11l0nStX

<?php
for ($i=0; $i<16; $i++) {
    $phrases = array(
        'Hello Sailor', 'Acid Test', 'Bear Garden', 'Botch A Job',
        'Dark Horse', 'In The Red', 'Man Up', 'Pan Out',
        'Quid Pro Quo', 'Rub It In', 'Turncoat', 'Yes Man',
        'All Wet', 'Bag Lady', 'Bean Feast', 'Big Wig',
    );

    $ran_Num = array_rand($phrases);
    $ran_Phrase = $phrases[$ran_Num];
    unset($phrases[$ran_Phrase]);
    echo $ran_Phrase . "\r\n";
    echo count($phrases) . "\r\n";
}

Is it possible to randomly pick a different phrase from the array on each loop?

Answer 1

Shuffle the array in random order, and just pop the last element off.

$array = [...];

shuffle($array);

while($element = array_pop($array)){
  echo 'Random element:' . $element;
}