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.
Swift 4These 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]
Swift 3These 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]
Swift 2extension 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]
Swift 1.2shuffle
as a functionThis 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 methodThis 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 methodThis 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]