Swift, how to, an array?

How do I randomize or shuffle the elements within an array in Swift? For example, if my array consists of 52 playing cards, I want to shuffle the array in order to shuffle the deck.

This answer details how to add a Fisher-Yates (fast an uniform) shuffle in the various versions of Swift. The Swift 3 & 4 versions are the most permissive, but they all at least work for arrays. The naming and behavior for each Swift version matches the mutating and nonmutating sorting methods for that version.

These extensions add a shuffle() method to any mutable collection (arrays and unsafe mutable buffers) and a shuffled() method to any sequence:

extension MutableCollection {
    /// Shuffles the contents of this collection.
    mutating func shuffle() {
        let c = count
        guard c > 1 else { return }
        for (firstUnshuffled, unshuffledCount) in zip(indices, stride(from: c, to: 1, by: -1)) {
            let d: IndexDistance = numericCast(arc4random_uniform(numericCast(unshuffledCount)))
            let i = index(firstUnshuffled, offsetBy: d)
            swapAt(firstUnshuffled, i)
        }
    }
}
extension Sequence {
    /// Returns an array with the contents of this sequence, shuffled.
    func shuffled() -> [Element] {
        var result = Array(self)
        result.shuffle()
        return result
    }
}
let x = [1, 2, 3].shuffled()
// x == [2, 3, 1]
let fiveStrings = stride(from: 0, through: 100, by: 5).map(String.init).shuffled()
// fiveStrings == ["20", "45", "70", "30", ...]
var numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4]
numbers.shuffle()
// numbers == [3, 2, 1, 4]

These extensions add a shuffle() method to any mutable collection and a shuffled() method to any sequence:

extension MutableCollection where Indices.Iterator.Element == Index {
    /// Shuffles the contents of this collection.
    mutating func shuffle() {
        let c = count
        guard c > 1 else { return }
        for (firstUnshuffled , unshuffledCount) in zip(indices, stride(from: c, to: 1, by: -1)) {
            let d: IndexDistance = numericCast(arc4random_uniform(numericCast(unshuffledCount)))
            guard d != 0 else { continue }
            let i = index(firstUnshuffled, offsetBy: d)
            swap(&self[firstUnshuffled], &self[i])
        }
    }
}
extension Sequence {
    /// Returns an array with the contents of this sequence, shuffled.
    func shuffled() -> [Iterator.Element] {
        var result = Array(self)
        result.shuffle()
        return result
    }
}
let x = [1, 2, 3].shuffled()
// x == [2, 3, 1]
let fiveStrings = stride(from: 0, through: 100, by: 5).map(String.init).shuffled()
// fiveStrings == ["20", "45", "70", "30", ...]
var numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4]
numbers.shuffle()
// numbers == [3, 2, 1, 4]

extension MutableCollectionType where Index == Int {
    /// Shuffle the elements of `self` in-place.
    mutating func shuffleInPlace() {
        // empty and single-element collections don't shuffle
        if count < 2 { return }
        for i in startIndex ..< endIndex - 1 {
            let j = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(count - i))) + i
            guard i != j else { continue }
            swap(&self[i], &self[j])
        }
    }
}
extension CollectionType {
    /// Return a copy of `self` with its elements shuffled.
    func shuffle() -> [Generator.Element] {
        var list = Array(self)
        list.shuffleInPlace()
        return list
    }
}
[1, 2, 3].shuffle()
// [2, 3, 1]
let fiveStrings = 0.stride(through: 100, by: 5).map(String.init).shuffle()
// ["20", "45", "70", "30", ...]
var numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4]
numbers.shuffleInPlace()
// [3, 2, 1, 4]

shuffle as a function

This is the simplest version: add this function anywhere at the top level and you'll be able to shuffle arrays and slices:

func shuffle<C: MutableCollectionType where C.Index == Int>(var list: C) -> C {
    let c = count(list)
    if c < 2 { return list }
    for i in 0..<(c - 1) {
        let j = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(c - i))) + i
        swap(&list[i], &list[j])
    }
    return list
}
shuffle([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8])        // e.g., [6, 1, 8, 3, 2, 4, 7, 5]
shuffle(["hello", "goodbye", "ciao"])    // e.g., ["ciao", "goodbye", "hello"]

shuffle as a mutating array method

This extension will let you shuffle a mutable Array instance in place:

extension Array {
    mutating func shuffle() {
        if count < 2 { return }
        for i in 0..<(count - 1) {
            let j = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(count - i))) + i
            swap(&self[i], &self[j])
        }
    }
}
var numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
numbers.shuffle()                     // e.g., numbers == [6, 1, 8, 3, 2, 4, 7, 5]

shuffled as a non-mutating array method

This extension will let you retrieve a shuffled copy of an Array instance:

extension Array {
    func shuffled() -> [T] {
        if count < 2 { return self }
        var list = self
        for i in 0..<(list.count - 1) {
            let j = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(list.count - i))) + i
            swap(&list[i], &list[j])
        }
        return list
    }
}
let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
let mixedup = numbers.shuffled()     // e.g., mixedup == [6, 1, 8, 3, 2, 4, 7, 5]