How to randomize (shuffle) a JavaScript array?

Question

I have an array like this:

var arr1 = ["a", "b", "c", "d"];

How can I randomize / shuffle it?

Answer 1

The de-facto unbiased shuffle algorithm is the Fisher-Yates (aka Knuth) Shuffle.

You can see a great visualization here (and the original post linked to this)

function shuffle(array) {
  let currentIndex = array.length,  randomIndex;

  // While there remain elements to shuffle.
  while (currentIndex > 0) {

    // Pick a remaining element.
    randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * currentIndex);
    currentIndex--;

    // And swap it with the current element.
    [array[currentIndex], array[randomIndex]] = [
      array[randomIndex], array[currentIndex]];
  }

  return array;
}

// Used like so
var arr = [2, 11, 37, 42];
shuffle(arr);
console.log(arr);

Some more info about the algorithm used.

Answer 2

Here's a JavaScript implementation of the Durstenfeld shuffle, an optimized version of Fisher-Yates:

/* Randomize array in-place using Durstenfeld shuffle algorithm */
function shuffleArray(array) {
    for (var i = array.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
        var j = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1));
        var temp = array[i];
        array[i] = array[j];
        array[j] = temp;
    }
}

It picks a random element for each original array element, and excludes it from the next draw, like picking randomly from a deck of cards.

This clever exclusion swaps the picked element with the current one, then picks the next random element from the remainder, looping backwards for optimal efficiency, ensuring the random pick is simplified (it can always start at 0), and thereby skipping the final element.

Algorithm runtime is O(n). Note that the shuffle is done in-place so if you don't want to modify the original array, first make a copy of it with .slice(0).

---

EDIT: Updating to ES6 / ECMAScript 2015

The new ES6 allows us to assign two variables at once. This is especially handy when we want to swap the values of two variables, as we can do it in one line of code. Here is a shorter form of the same function, using this feature.

function shuffleArray(array) {
    for (let i = array.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
        const j = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1));
        [array[i], array[j]] = [array[j], array[i]];
    }
}

Answer 3

You can do it easily with map and sort:

let unshuffled = ['hello', 'a', 't', 'q', 1, 2, 3, {cats: true}]

let shuffled = unshuffled
    .map(value => ({ value, sort: Math.random() }))
    .sort((a, b) => a.sort - b.sort)
    .map(({ value }) => value)
   
console.log(shuffled)

1. We put each element in the array in an object, and give it a random sort key
2. We sort using the random key
3. We unmap to get the original objects

You can shuffle polymorphic arrays, and the sort is as random as Math.random, which is good enough for most purposes.

Since the elements are sorted against consistent keys that are not regenerated each iteration, and each comparison pulls from the same distribution, any non-randomness in the distribution of Math.random is canceled out.

Speed

Time complexity is O(N log N), same as quick sort. Space complexity is O(N). This is not as efficient as a Fischer Yates shuffle but, in my opinion, the code is significantly shorter and more functional. If you have a large array you should certainly use Fischer Yates. If you have a small array with a few hundred items, you might do this.

Answer 4

Warning!
The use of this algorithm is not recommended, because it is inefficient and strongly biased; see comments. It is being left here for future reference, because the idea is not that rare.

[1,2,3,4,5,6].sort( () => .5 - Math.random() );

---

This https://javascript.info/array-methods#shuffle-an-array tutorial explains the differences straightforwardly.

Answer 5

Use the underscore.js library. The method _.shuffle() is nice for this case. Here is an example with the method:

var _ = require("underscore");

var arr = [1,2,3,4,5,6];
// Testing _.shuffle
var testShuffle = function () {
  var indexOne = 0;
    var stObj = {
      '0': 0,
      '1': 1,
      '2': 2,
      '3': 3,
      '4': 4,
      '5': 5
    };
    for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
      arr = _.shuffle(arr);
      indexOne = _.indexOf(arr, 1);
      stObj[indexOne] ++;
    }
    console.log(stObj);
};
testShuffle();

Answer 6

One could (but should NOT) use it as a protoype from Array:

From ChristopheD:

Array.prototype.shuffle = function() {
  var i = this.length, j, temp;
  if ( i == 0 ) return this;
  while ( --i ) {
     j = Math.floor( Math.random() * ( i + 1 ) );
     temp = this[i];
     this[i] = this[j];
     this[j] = temp;
  }
  return this;
}

Answer 7

NEW!

Shorter & probably *faster Fisher-Yates shuffle algorithm

1. it uses while---
2. bitwise to floor (numbers up to 10 decimal digits (32bit))
3. removed unecessary closures & other stuff

---

function fy(a,b,c,d){//array,placeholder,placeholder,placeholder
 c=a.length;while(c)b=Math.random()*(--c+1)|0,d=a[c],a[c]=a[b],a[b]=d
}

script size (with fy as function name): 90bytes

DEMO http://jsfiddle.net/vvpoma8w/

*faster probably on all browsers except chrome.

If you have any questions just ask.

EDIT

yes it is faster

PERFORMANCE: http://jsperf.com/fyshuffle

using the top voted functions.

EDIT There was a calculation in excess (don't need --c+1) and noone noticed

shorter(4bytes)&faster(test it!).

function fy(a,b,c,d){//array,placeholder,placeholder,placeholder
 c=a.length;while(c)b=Math.random()*c--|0,d=a[c],a[c]=a[b],a[b]=d
}

Caching somewhere else var rnd=Math.random and then use rnd() would also increase slightly the performance on big arrays.

http://jsfiddle.net/vvpoma8w/2/

Readable version (use the original version. this is slower, vars are useless, like the closures & ";", the code itself is also shorter ... maybe read this How to 'minify' Javascript code , btw you are not able to compress the following code in a javascript minifiers like the above one.)

function fisherYates( array ){
 var count = array.length,
     randomnumber,
     temp;
 while( count ){
  randomnumber = Math.random() * count-- | 0;
  temp = array[count];
  array[count] = array[randomnumber];
  array[randomnumber] = temp
 }
}

Answer 8

Shuffle Array In place

function shuffleArr (array){
    for (var i = array.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
        var rand = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1));
        [array[i], array[rand]] = [array[rand], array[i]]
    }
}

ES6 Pure, Iterative

const getShuffledArr = arr => {
    const newArr = arr.slice()
    for (let i = newArr.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
        const rand = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1));
        [newArr[i], newArr[rand]] = [newArr[rand], newArr[i]];
    }
    return newArr
};

---

Reliability and Performance Test

Some solutions on this page aren't reliable (they only partially randomise the array). Other solutions are significantly less efficient. With testShuffleArrayFun (see below) we can test array shuffling functions for reliability and performance.

function testShuffleArrayFun(getShuffledArrayFun){
    const arr = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]

    var countArr = arr.map(el=>{
        return arr.map(
            el=> 0
        )
    }) //   For each possible position in the shuffledArr and for 
       //   each possible value, we'll create a counter. 
    const t0 = performance.now()
    const n = 1000000
    for (var i=0 ; i<n ; i++){
        //   We'll call getShuffledArrayFun n times. 
        //   And for each iteration, we'll increment the counter. 
        var shuffledArr = getShuffledArrayFun(arr)
        shuffledArr.forEach(
            (value,key)=>{countArr[key][value]++}
        )
    }
    const t1 = performance.now()
    console.log(`Count Values in position`)
    console.table(countArr)

    const frequencyArr = countArr.map( positionArr => (
        positionArr.map(  
            count => count/n
        )
    )) 

    console.log("Frequency of value in position")
    console.table(frequencyArr)
    console.log(`total time: ${t1-t0}`)
}

---

Other Solutions

Other solutions just for fun.

ES6 Pure, Recursive

const getShuffledArr = arr => {
    if (arr.length === 1) {return arr};
    const rand = Math.floor(Math.random() * arr.length);
    return [arr[rand], ...getShuffledArr(arr.filter((_, i) => i != rand))];
};

ES6 Pure using array.map

function getShuffledArr (arr){
    return [...arr].map( (_, i, arrCopy) => {
        var rand = i + ( Math.floor( Math.random() * (arrCopy.length - i) ) );
        [arrCopy[rand], arrCopy[i]] = [arrCopy[i], arrCopy[rand]]
        return arrCopy[i]
    })
}

ES6 Pure using array.reduce

function getShuffledArr (arr){
    return arr.reduce( 
        (newArr, _, i) => {
            var rand = i + ( Math.floor( Math.random() * (newArr.length - i) ) );
            [newArr[rand], newArr[i]] = [newArr[i], newArr[rand]]
            return newArr
        }, [...arr]
    )
}

Answer 9

Edit: This answer is incorrect

See comments and https://stackoverflow.com/a/18650169/28234. It is being left here for reference because the idea isn't rare.

---

A very simple way for small arrays is simply this:

const someArray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

someArray.sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5);

It's probably not very efficient, but for small arrays this works just fine. Here's an example so you can see how random (or not) it is, and whether it fits your usecase or not.

const resultsEl = document.querySelector('#results');
const buttonEl = document.querySelector('#trigger');

const generateArrayAndRandomize = () => {
  const someArray = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9];
  someArray.sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5);
  return someArray;
};

const renderResultsToDom = (results, el) => {
  el.innerHTML = results.join(' ');
};

buttonEl.addEventListener('click', () => renderResultsToDom(generateArrayAndRandomize(), resultsEl));

<h1>Randomize!</h1>
<button id="trigger">Generate</button>
<p id="results">0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9</p>

Answer 10

Adding to @Laurens Holsts answer. This is 50% compressed.

function shuffleArray(d) {
  for (var c = d.length - 1; c > 0; c--) {
    var b = Math.floor(Math.random() * (c + 1));
    var a = d[c];
    d[c] = d[b];
    d[b] = a;
  }
  return d
};

Answer 11

Warning!
Using this answer for randomizing large arrays, cryptography, or any other application requiring true randomness is not recommended, due to its bias and inefficiency. Elements position is only semi-randomized, and they will tend to stay closer to their original position. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/18650169/28234.

---

You can arbitrarily decide whether to return 1 : -1 by using Math.random:

[1, 2, 3, 4].sort(() => (Math.random() > 0.5) ? 1 : -1)

Try running the following example:

const array =  [1, 2, 3, 4];

// Based on the value returned by Math.Random,
// the decision is arbitrarily made whether to return 1 : -1

const shuffeled = array.sort(() => {
  const randomTrueOrFalse = Math.random() > 0.5;
  return randomTrueOrFalse ? 1 : -1
});

console.log(shuffeled);

Answer 12

I found this variant hanging out in the "deleted by author" answers on a duplicate of this question. Unlike some of the other answers that have many upvotes already, this is:

1. Actually random
2. Not in-place (hence the shuffled name rather than shuffle)
3. Not already present here with multiple variants

Here's a jsfiddle showing it in use.

Array.prototype.shuffled = function() {
  return this.map(function(n){ return [Math.random(), n] })
             .sort().map(function(n){ return n[1] });
}

Answer 13

With ES2015 you can use this one:

Array.prototype.shuffle = function() {
  let m = this.length, i;
  while (m) {
    i = (Math.random() * m--) >>> 0;
    [this[m], this[i]] = [this[i], this[m]]
  }
  return this;
}

Usage:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].shuffle();

Answer 14

benchmarks

Let's first see the results then we'll look at each implementation of shuffle below -

• 

• 

• 

---

splice is slow

Any solution using splice or shift in a loop is going to be very slow. Which is especially noticeable when we increase the size of the array. In a naive algorithm we -

1. get a rand position, i, in the input array, t
2. add t[i] to the output
3. splice position i from array t

To exaggerate the slow effect, we'll demonstrate this on an array of one million elements. The following script almost 30 seconds -

const shuffle = t =>
  Array.from(sample(t, t.length))

function* sample(t, n)
{ let r = Array.from(t)
  while (n > 0 && r.length)
  { const i = rand(r.length) // 1
    yield r[i]               // 2
    r.splice(i, 1)           // 3
    n = n - 1
  }
}

const rand = n =>
  0 | Math.random() * n

function swap (t, i, j)
{ let q = t[i]
  t[i] = t[j]
  t[j] = q
  return t
}

const size = 1e6
const bigarray = Array.from(Array(size), (_,i) => i)
console.time("shuffle via splice")
const result = shuffle(bigarray)
console.timeEnd("shuffle via splice")
document.body.textContent = JSON.stringify(result, null, 2)

body::before {
  content: "1 million elements via splice";
  font-weight: bold;
  display: block;
}

---

pop is fast

The trick is not to splice and instead use the super efficient pop. To do this, in place of the typical splice call, you -

1. select the position to splice, i
2. swap t[i] with the last element, t[t.length - 1]
3. add t.pop() to the result

Now we can shuffle one million elements in less than 100 milliseconds -

const shuffle = t =>
  Array.from(sample(t, t.length))

function* sample(t, n)
{ let r = Array.from(t)
  while (n > 0 && r.length)
  { const i = rand(r.length) // 1
    swap(r, i, r.length - 1) // 2
    yield r.pop()            // 3
    n = n - 1
  }
}

const rand = n =>
  0 | Math.random() * n

function swap (t, i, j)
{ let q = t[i]
  t[i] = t[j]
  t[j] = q
  return t
}

const size = 1e6
const bigarray = Array.from(Array(size), (_,i) => i)
console.time("shuffle via pop")
const result = shuffle(bigarray)
console.timeEnd("shuffle via pop")
document.body.textContent = JSON.stringify(result, null, 2)

body::before {
  content: "1 million elements via pop";
  font-weight: bold;
  display: block;
}

---

even faster

The two implementations of shuffle above produce a new output array. The input array is not modified. This is my preferred way of working however you can increase the speed even more by shuffling in place.

Below shuffle one million elements in less than 10 milliseconds -

function shuffle (t)
{ let last = t.length
  let n
  while (last > 0)
  { n = rand(last)
    swap(t, n, --last)
  }
}

const rand = n =>
  0 | Math.random() * n

function swap (t, i, j)
{ let q = t[i]
  t[i] = t[j]
  t[j] = q
  return t
}

const size = 1e6
const bigarray = Array.from(Array(size), (_,i) => i)
console.time("shuffle in place")
shuffle(bigarray)
console.timeEnd("shuffle in place")
document.body.textContent = JSON.stringify(bigarray, null, 2)

body::before {
  content: "1 million elements in place";
  font-weight: bold;
  display: block;
}

Answer 15

//one line solution
shuffle = (array) => array.sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5);


//Demo
let arr = [1, 2, 3];
shuffle(arr);
alert(arr);

https://javascript.info/task/shuffle

Math.random() - 0.5 is a random number that may be positive or negative, so the sorting function reorders elements randomly.

Answer 16

var shuffle = function(array) {
   temp = [];
   originalLength = array.length;
   for (var i = 0; i < originalLength; i++) {
     temp.push(array.splice(Math.floor(Math.random()*array.length),1));
   }
   return temp;
};

Answer 17

A recursive solution:

function shuffle(a,b){
    return a.length==0?b:function(c){
        return shuffle(a,(b||[]).concat(c));
    }(a.splice(Math.floor(Math.random()*a.length),1));
};

Answer 18

Modern short inline solution using ES6 features:

['a','b','c','d'].map(x => [Math.random(), x]).sort(([a], [b]) => a - b).map(([_, x]) => x);

(for educational purposes)

Answer 19

Fisher-Yates shuffle in javascript. I'm posting this here because the use of two utility functions (swap and randInt) clarifies the algorithm compared to the other answers here.

function swap(arr, i, j) { 
  // swaps two elements of an array in place
  var temp = arr[i];
  arr[i] = arr[j];
  arr[j] = temp;
}
function randInt(max) { 
  // returns random integer between 0 and max-1 inclusive.
  return Math.floor(Math.random()*max);
}
function shuffle(arr) {
  // For each slot in the array (starting at the end), 
  // pick an element randomly from the unplaced elements and
  // place it in the slot, exchanging places with the 
  // element in the slot. 
  for(var slot = arr.length - 1; slot > 0; slot--){
    var element = randInt(slot+1);
    swap(arr, element, slot);
  }
}

Answer 20

Using Fisher-Yates shuffle algorithm and ES6:

// Original array
let array = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'];

// Create a copy of the original array to be randomized
let shuffle = [...array];

// Defining function returning random value from i to N
const getRandomValue = (i, N) => Math.floor(Math.random() * (N - i) + i);

// Shuffle a pair of two elements at random position j
shuffle.forEach( (elem, i, arr, j = getRandomValue(i, arr.length)) => [arr[i], arr[j]] = [arr[j], arr[i]] );

console.log(shuffle);
// ['d', 'a', 'b', 'c']

Answer 21

First of all, have a look here for a great visual comparison of different sorting methods in javascript.

Secondly, if you have a quick look at the link above you'll find that the random order sort seems to perform relatively well compared to the other methods, while being extremely easy and fast to implement as shown below:

function shuffle(array) {
  var random = array.map(Math.random);
  array.sort(function(a, b) {
    return random[array.indexOf(a)] - random[array.indexOf(b)];
  });
}

Edit: as pointed out by @gregers, the compare function is called with values rather than indices, which is why you need to use indexOf. Note that this change makes the code less suitable for larger arrays as indexOf runs in O(n) time.

Answer 22

All the other answers are based on Math.random() which is fast but not suitable for cryptgraphic level randomization.

The below code is using the well known Fisher-Yates algorithm while utilizing Web Cryptography API for cryptographic level of randomization.

var d = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10];

function shuffle(a) {
 var x, t, r = new Uint32Array(1);
 for (var i = 0, c = a.length - 1, m = a.length; i < c; i++, m--) {
  crypto.getRandomValues(r);
  x = Math.floor(r / 65536 / 65536 * m) + i;
  t = a [i], a [i] = a [x], a [x] = t;
 }

 return a;
}

console.log(shuffle(d));

Answer 23

a shuffle function that doesn't change the source array

Disclaimer

Please note that this solution is not suitable for large arrays! If you are shuffling large datasets, you should use the Durstenfeld algorithm suggested above.

Solution

function shuffle(array) {
  const result = [], itemsLeft = array.concat([]);

  while (itemsLeft.length) {
    const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * itemsLeft.length);
    const [randomItem] = itemsLeft.splice(randomIndex, 1); // take out a random item from itemsLeft
    result.push(randomItem); // ...and add it to the result
  }

  return result;
}

How it works

1. copies the initial array into itemsLeft

2. picks up a random index from itemsLeft, adds the corresponding element to the result array and deletes it from the itemsLeft array

3. repeats step (2) until itemsLeft array gets empty

4. returns result

Answer 24

For those of us who are not very gifted but have access to the wonders of lodash, there is such a thing as lodash.shuffle.

Answer 25

We're still shuffling arrays in 2019, so here goes my approach, which seems to be neat and fast to me:

const src = [...'abcdefg'];

const shuffle = arr => 
  [...arr].reduceRight((res,_,__,s) => 
    (res.push(s.splice(0|Math.random()*s.length,1)[0]), res),[]);

console.log(shuffle(src));

.as-console-wrapper {min-height: 100%}

Answer 26

Here is the EASIEST one,

function shuffle(array) {
  return array.sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5);
}

for further example, you can check it here

Answer 27

A simple modification of CoolAJ86's answer that does not modify the original array:

 /**
 * Returns a new array whose contents are a shuffled copy of the original array.
 * @param {Array} The items to shuffle.
 * https://stackoverflow.com/a/2450976/1673761
 * https://stackoverflow.com/a/44071316/1673761
 */
const shuffle = (array) => {
  let currentIndex = array.length;
  let temporaryValue;
  let randomIndex;
  const newArray = array.slice();
  // While there remains elements to shuffle...
  while (currentIndex) {
    randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * currentIndex);
    currentIndex -= 1;
    // Swap it with the current element.
    temporaryValue = newArray[currentIndex];
    newArray[currentIndex] = newArray[randomIndex];
    newArray[randomIndex] = temporaryValue;
  }
  return newArray;
};

Answer 28

You can do it easily with:

// array
var fruits = ["Banana", "Orange", "Apple", "Mango"];
// random
fruits.sort(function(a, b){return 0.5 - Math.random()});
// out
console.log(fruits);

Please reference at JavaScript Sorting Arrays

Answer 29

I found this useful:

const shuffle = (array: any[]) => {
    return array.slice().sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5);
  }
        
console.log(shuffle([1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]));
// Output: [4, 3, 8, 10, 1, 7, 9, 2, 6, 5]

Answer 30

yet another implementation of Fisher-Yates, using strict mode:

function shuffleArray(a) {
    "use strict";
    var i, t, j;
    for (i = a.length - 1; i > 0; i -= 1) {
        t = a[i];
        j = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1));
        a[i] = a[j];
        a[j] = t;
    }
    return a;
}

Answer 31

Randomize array

 var arr = ['apple','cat','Adam','123','Zorro','petunia']; 
 var n = arr.length; var tempArr = [];

 for ( var i = 0; i < n-1; i++ ) {

    // The following line removes one random element from arr 
     // and pushes it onto tempArr 
     tempArr.push(arr.splice(Math.floor(Math.random()*arr.length),1)[0]);
 }

 // Push the remaining item onto tempArr 
 tempArr.push(arr[0]); 
 arr=tempArr; 

Answer 32

Though there are a number of implementations already advised but I feel we can make it shorter and easier using forEach loop, so we don't need to worry about calculating array length and also we can safely avoid using a temporary variable.

var myArr = ["a", "b", "c", "d"];

myArr.forEach((val, key) => {
  randomIndex = Math.ceil(Math.random()*(key + 1));
  myArr[key] = myArr[randomIndex];
  myArr[randomIndex] = val;
});
// see the values
console.log('Shuffled Array: ', myArr)

Answer 33

I use these two methods:

This method does not modify the original array

shuffle(array);

function shuffle(arr) {
    var len = arr.length;
    var d = len;
    var array = [];
    var k, i;
    for (i = 0; i < d; i++) {
        k = Math.floor(Math.random() * len);
        array.push(arr[k]);
        arr.splice(k, 1);
        len = arr.length;
    }
    for (i = 0; i < d; i++) {
        arr[i] = array[i];
    }
    return arr;
}

var arr = ["a", "b", "c", "d"];
arr = shuffle(arr);
console.log(arr);

This method modify the original array

array.shuffle();

Array.prototype.shuffle = function() {
    var len = this.length;
    var d = len;
    var array = [];
    var k, i;
    for (i = 0; i < d; i++) {
        k = Math.floor(Math.random() * len);
        array.push(this[k]);
        this.splice(k, 1);
        len = this.length;
    }
    for (i = 0; i < d; i++) {
        this[i] = array[i];
    }
}

var arr = ["a", "b", "c", "d"];
arr.shuffle();
console.log(arr);

Answer 34

the shortest arrayShuffle function

function arrayShuffle(o) {
    for(var j, x, i = o.length; i; j = parseInt(Math.random() * i), x = o[--i], o[i] = o[j], o[j] = x);
    return o;
}

Answer 35

Funny enough there was no non mutating recursive answer:

var shuffle = arr => {
  const recur = (arr,currentIndex)=>{
    console.log("What?",JSON.stringify(arr))
    if(currentIndex===0){
      return arr;
    }
    const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * currentIndex);
    const swap = arr[currentIndex];
    arr[currentIndex] = arr[randomIndex];
    arr[randomIndex] = swap;
    return recur(
      arr,
      currentIndex - 1
    );
  }
  return recur(arr.map(x=>x),arr.length-1);
};

var arr = [1,2,3,4,5,[6]];
console.log(shuffle(arr));
console.log(arr);

Answer 36

You can use lodash shuffle. Works like a charm

import _ from lodash;

let numeric_array = [2, 4, 6, 9, 10];
let string_array = ['Car', 'Bus', 'Truck', 'Motorcycle', 'Bicycle', 'Person']

let shuffled_num_array = _.shuffle(numeric_array);
let shuffled_string_array = _.shuffle(string_array);

console.log(shuffled_num_array, shuffled_string_array)

Answer 37

Array.prototype.shuffle=function(){
   var len = this.length,temp,i
   while(len){
    i=Math.random()*len-- |0;
    temp=this[len],this[len]=this[i],this[i]=temp;
   }
   return this;
}

Answer 38

From a theoretical point of view, the most elegant way of doing it, in my humble opinion, is to get a single random number between 0 and n!-1 and to compute a one to one mapping from {0, 1, …, n!-1} to all permutations of (0, 1, 2, …, n-1). As long as you can use a (pseudo-)random generator reliable enough for getting such a number without any significant bias, you have enough information in it for achieving what you want without needing several other random numbers.

When computing with IEEE754 double precision floating numbers, you can expect your random generator to provide about 15 decimals. Since you have 15!=1,307,674,368,000 (with 13 digits), you can use the following functions with arrays containing up to 15 elements and assume there will be no significant bias with arrays containing up to 14 elements. If you work on a fixed-size problem requiring to compute many times this shuffle operation, you may want to try the following code which may be faster than other codes since it uses Math.random only once (it involves several copy operations however).

The following function will not be used, but I give it anyway; it returns the index of a given permutation of (0, 1, 2, …, n-1) according to the one to one mapping used in this message (the most natural one when enumerating permuations); it is intended to work with up to 16 elements:

function permIndex(p) {
    var fact = [1, 1, 2, 6, 24, 120, 720, 5040, 40320, 362880, 3628800, 39916800, 479001600, 6227020800, 87178291200, 1307674368000];
    var tail = [];
    var i;
    if (p.length == 0) return 0;
    for(i=1;i<(p.length);i++) {
        if (p[i] > p[0]) tail.push(p[i]-1);
        else tail.push(p[i]);
    }
    return p[0] * fact[p.length-1] + permIndex(tail);
}

The reciprocal of the previous function (required for your own question) is below; it is intended to work with up to 16 elements; it returns the permutation of order n of (0, 1, 2, …, s-1):

function permNth(n, s) {
    var fact = [1, 1, 2, 6, 24, 120, 720, 5040, 40320, 362880, 3628800, 39916800, 479001600, 6227020800, 87178291200, 1307674368000];
    var i, j;
    var p = [];
    var q = [];
    for(i=0;i<s;i++) p.push(i);
    for(i=s-1; i>=0; i--) {
        j = Math.floor(n / fact[i]);
        n -= j*fact[i];
        q.push(p[j]);
        for(;j<i;j++) p[j]=p[j+1];
    }
    return q;
}

Now, what you want merely is:

function shuffle(p) {
    var fact = [1, 1, 2, 6, 24, 120, 720, 5040, 40320, 362880, 3628800, 39916800, 479001600, 6227020800, 87178291200, 1307674368000, 20922789888000];
    return permNth(Math.floor(Math.random()*fact[p.length]), p.length).map(
            function(i) { return p[i]; });
}

It should work for up to 16 elements with a little theoretical bias (though unnoticeable from a practical point of view); it can be seen as fully usable for 15 elements; with arrays containing less than 14 elements, you can safely consider there will be absolutely no bias.

Answer 39

function shuffleArray(array) {
        // Create a new array with the length of the given array in the parameters
        const newArray = array.map(() => null);

        // Create a new array where each index contain the index value
        const arrayReference = array.map((item, index) => index);

        // Iterate on the array given in the parameters
        array.forEach(randomize);
        
        return newArray;

        function randomize(item) {
            const randomIndex = getRandomIndex();

            // Replace the value in the new array
            newArray[arrayReference[randomIndex]] = item;
            
            // Remove in the array reference the index used
            arrayReference.splice(randomIndex,1);
        }

        // Return a number between 0 and current array reference length
        function getRandomIndex() {
            const min = 0;
            const max = arrayReference.length;
            return Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min)) + min;
        }
    }
    
console.log(shuffleArray([10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100]));

Answer 40

Just to have a finger in the pie. Here i present a recursive implementation of Fisher Yates shuffle (i think). It gives uniform randomness.

Note: The ~~ (double tilde operator) is in fact behaves like Math.floor() for positive real numbers. Just a short cut it is.

var shuffle = a => a.length ? a.splice(~~(Math.random()*a.length),1).concat(shuffle(a))
                            : a;

console.log(JSON.stringify(shuffle([0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9])));

Edit: The above code is O(n^2) due to the employment of .splice() but we can eliminate splice and shuffle in O(n) by the swap trick.

var shuffle = (a, l = a.length, r = ~~(Math.random()*l)) => l ? ([a[r],a[l-1]] = [a[l-1],a[r]], shuffle(a, l-1))
                                                              : a;

var arr = Array.from({length:3000}, (_,i) => i);
console.time("shuffle");
shuffle(arr);
console.timeEnd("shuffle");

The problem is, JS can not coop on with big recursions. In this particular case you array size is limited with like 3000~7000 depending on your browser engine and some unknown facts.

Answer 41

ES6 compact code using generator function*

This works by randomly removing items from a copy of the unshuffled array until there are none left. It uses the new ES6 generator function.

This will be a perfectly fair shuffle as long as Math.random() is fair.

let arr = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]

function* shuffle(arr) {
  arr = [...arr];
  while(arr.length) yield arr.splice(Math.random()*arr.length|0, 1)[0]
}

console.log([...shuffle(arr)])

Alternatively, using ES6 and splice:

let arr = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]

let shuffled = arr.reduce(([a,b])=>
  (b.push(...a.splice(Math.random()*a.length|0, 1)), [a,b]),[[...arr],[]])[1]

console.log(shuffled)

or, ES6 index swap method:

let arr = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]

let shuffled = arr.reduce((a,c,i,r,j)=>
  (j=Math.random()*(a.length-i)|0,[a[i],a[j]]=[a[j],a[i]],a),[...arr])

console.log(shuffled)

Answer 42

var shuffledArray = function(inpArr){
    //inpArr - is input array
    var arrRand = []; //this will give shuffled array
    var arrTempInd = []; // to store shuffled indexes
    var max = inpArr.length;
    var min = 0;
    var tempInd;
    var i = 0;

    do{
        //generate random index between range
        tempInd = Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min));
        //check if index is already available in array to avoid repetition
        if(arrTempInd.indexOf(tempInd)<0){
            //push character at random index
            arrRand[i] = inpArr[tempInd];
            //push random indexes
            arrTempInd.push(tempInd);
            i++;
        }
    }
    // check if random array length is equal to input array length
    while(arrTempInd.length < max){
        return arrRand; // this will return shuffled Array
    }
};

Just pass the array to function and in return get the shuffled array

Answer 43

Considering apply it to in loco or to a new immutable array, following other solutions, here is a suggested implementation:

Array.prototype.shuffle = function(local){
  var a = this;
  var newArray = typeof local === "boolean" && local ? this : [];
  for (var i = 0, newIdx, curr, next; i < a.length; i++){
    newIdx = Math.floor(Math.random()*i);
    curr = a[i];
    next = a[newIdx];
    newArray[i] = next;
    newArray[newIdx] = curr;
  }
  return newArray;
};

Answer 44

Ronald Fisher and Frank Yates shuffle

ES2015 (ES6) release

Array.prototype.shuffle2 = function () {
    this.forEach(
        function (v, i, a) {
            let j = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1));
            [a[i], a[j]] = [a[j], a[i]];
        }
    );
    return this;
}

Jet optimized ES2015 (ES6) release

Array.prototype.shuffle3 = function () {
    var m = this.length;
    while (m) {
        let i = Math.floor(Math.random() * m--);
        [this[m], this[i]] = [this[i], this[m]];
    }
    return this;
}

Answer 45

I see no one has yet given a solution that can be concatenated while not extending the Array prototype (which is a bad practice). Using the slightly lesser known reduce() we can easily do shuffling in a way that allows for concatenation:

var randomsquares = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].reduce(shuffle).map(n => n*n);

You'd probably want to pass the second parameter [], as otherwise if you try to do this on an empty array it'd fail:

// Both work. The second one wouldn't have worked as the one above
var randomsquares = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].reduce(shuffle, []).map(n => n*n);
var randomsquares = [].reduce(shuffle, []).map(n => n*n);

Let's define shuffle as:

var shuffle = (rand, one, i, orig) => {
  if (i !== 1) return rand;  // Randomize it only once (arr.length > 1)

  // You could use here other random algorithm if you wanted
  for (let i = orig.length; i; i--) {
    let j = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
    [orig[i - 1], orig[j]] = [orig[j], orig[i - 1]];
  }

  return orig;
}

You can see it in action in JSFiddle or here:

var shuffle = (all, one, i, orig) => {
    if (i !== 1) return all;

    // You could use here other random algorithm here
    for (let i = orig.length; i; i--) {
        let j = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
        [orig[i - 1], orig[j]] = [orig[j], orig[i - 1]];
    }

    return orig;
}

for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
  var randomarray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].reduce(shuffle, []);
  console.log(JSON.stringify(randomarray));
}

Answer 46

I was thinking about oneliner to paste in console. All tricks with .sort was giving wrong results, here is my implementation:

 ['Bob', 'Amy', 'Joy'].map((person) => `${Math.random().toFixed(10)}${person}`).sort().map((person) => person.substr(12));

But don't use it in production code, it's not optimal and works with strings only.

Answer 47

// Create a places array which holds the index for each item in the
// passed in array.
// 
// Then return a new array by randomly selecting items from the
// passed in array by referencing the places array item. Removing that
// places item each time though.
function shuffle(array) {
    let places = array.map((item, index) => index);
    return array.map((item, index, array) => {
      const random_index = Math.floor(Math.random() * places.length);
      const places_value = places[random_index];
      places.splice(random_index, 1);
      return array[places_value];
    })
}

Answer 48

By using shuffle-array module you can shuffle your array . Here is a simple code of it .

var shuffle = require('shuffle-array'),
 //collection = [1,2,3,4,5];
collection = ["a","b","c","d","e"];
shuffle(collection);

console.log(collection);

Hope this helps.

Answer 49

Edit: Don't use this. The result will always make the elements from the beginning closer to the middle. Who knows, maybe there's a use for this algorithm but not for completely random sorting.

Randomly either push or unshift(add in the beginning).

['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'].reduce((acc, el) => {
  Math.random() > 0.5 ? acc.push(el) : acc.unshift(el);
  return acc;
}, []);

Answer 50

For completeness, in addition to the Durstenfeld variation of Fischer-Yates, I'd also point out Sattolo's algorithm which is just one tiny change away and results in every element changing place.

function sattoloCycle(arr) {
   for (let i = arr.length - 1; 0 < i; i--) {
      const j = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
      [arr[i], arr[j]] = [arr[j], arr[i]];
   }
   return arr
}

The difference is in how random index j is computed, with Math.random() * i versus Math.random() * (i + 1).

Answer 51

Understandable way of shuffling elements of an array

 let arr1 = ["a", "b", "c", "d"];
 
function shuffle(array){
let currentIndex = array.length;
while(currentIndex !=0){
let randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random()*array.length);
currentIndex -=1;
let temp = array[currentIndex];
array[currentIndex] = array[randomIndex];
array[randomIndex]=temp;  
}
return array;
}
let arr2 = shuffle(arr1);
arr2.forEach(element => console.log(element));

Answer 52

This variation of Fisher-Yates is slightly more efficient because it avoids swapping an element with itself:

function shuffle(array) {
  var elementsRemaining = array.length, temp, randomIndex;
  while (elementsRemaining > 1) {
    randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * elementsRemaining--);
    if (randomIndex != elementsRemaining) {
      temp = array[elementsRemaining];
      array[elementsRemaining] = array[randomIndex];
      array[randomIndex] = temp;
    }
  }
  return array;
}

Answer 53

Randomize array using array.splice()

function shuffleArray(array) {
   var temp = [];
   var len=array.length;
   while(len){
      temp.push(array.splice(Math.floor(Math.random()*array.length),1)[0]);
      len--;
   }
   return temp;
}
//console.log("Here >>> "+shuffleArray([4,2,3,5,8,1,0]));

demo

Answer 54

I have written a shuffle function on my own . The difference here is it will never repeat a value (checks in the code for this) :-

function shuffleArray(array) {
 var newArray = [];
 for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
     newArray.push(-1);
 }

 for (var j = 0; j < array.length; j++) {
    var id = Math.floor((Math.random() * array.length));
    while (newArray[id] !== -1) {
        id = Math.floor((Math.random() * array.length));
    }

    newArray.splice(id, 1, array[j]);
 }
 return newArray; }

Answer 55

d3.js provides a built-in version of the Fisher–Yates shuffle:

console.log(d3.shuffle(["a", "b", "c", "d"]));

<script src="http://d3js.org/d3.v5.min.js"></script>

d3.shuffle(array[, lo[, hi]]) <>

Randomizes the order of the specified array using the Fisher–Yates shuffle.

Answer 56

Rebuilding the entire array, one by one putting each element at a random place.

[1,2,3].reduce((a,x,i)=>{a.splice(Math.floor(Math.random()*(i+1)),0,x);return a},[])

var ia= [1,2,3];
var it= 1000;
var f = (a,x,i)=>{a.splice(Math.floor(Math.random()*(i+1)),0,x);return a};
var a = new Array(it).fill(ia).map(x=>x.reduce(f,[]));
var r = new Array(ia.length).fill(0).map((x,i)=>a.reduce((i2,x2)=>x2[i]+i2,0)/it)

console.log("These values should be quite equal:",r);

Answer 57

 const arr = [
  { index: 0, value: "0" },
  { index: 1, value: "1" },
  { index: 2, value: "2" },
  { index: 3, value: "3" },
];
let shuffle = (arr) => {
  let set = new Set();
  while (set.size != arr.length) {
    let rand = Math.floor(Math.random() * arr.length);
    set.add(arr[rand]);
  }
  console.log(set);
};
shuffle(arr);

Answer 58

For more flexibility you can add another parameter. In this case, you can take a random array from an array and specify the length of the new array:

  function shuffle(array, len = array.length) {
        for (let i = array.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
            let j = Math.floor(Math.random() * (i + 1));
            [array[i], array[j]] = [array[j], array[i]];
        }

        return array.slice(0, len);
    }

Answer 59

I couldn't quite find one that I liked. Here's a solution I came up with. I didn't use too many meaningless variables as this is the way I code now.

Array.prototype.shuffle = function() {
    for (let i in this) {
        if (this.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
            let index = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
            [
                this[i],
                this[index]
            ] = [
                this[index],
                this[i]
            ];
        }
    }

    return this;
}

let arrayA = [
    "item1", "item2", "item3", "item4", "item5"
];

Array.prototype.shuffle = function() {
    for (let i in this) {
        if (this.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
            let index = Math.floor(Math.random() * i);
            [
                this[i],
                this[index]
            ] = [
                this[index],
                this[i]
            ];
        }
    }
    
    return this;
}

console.log(arrayA.shuffle());

I hope this helps those of you who might not understand this very well.

Answer 60

Or like all the above answers but in short.

function shuffle(a) { for (var c, d, b = a.length; 0 !== b;)d = Math.floor(Math.random() * b), b -= 1, c = a[b], a[b] = a[d], a[d] = c; return a }

Answer 61

Randomize array without duplicates

    function randomize(array){
        let nums = [];
        for(let i = 0; i < array.length; ++i){
            nums.push(i);
        }   
        nums.sort(() => Math.random() - Math.random()).slice(0, array.length)
        for(let i = 0; i < array.length; ++i){
            array[i] = array[nums[i]];
        }
    }
    randomize(array);

Answer 62

Use forEach and Math.random()

var data = ['a','b','c','d','e']
data.forEach( (value,i) => {
   var random = Math.floor(Math.random() * data.length)
   var tmp = data[random]
   data[random] = value
   data[i] = tmp
})
console.log(data)

Answer 63

I'll add the solution I use most here because I didn't quite find this approach:

const shuffle = array =>
  array
    // Generate a random number for each elements
    .map(value => [Math.random(), value])

    // Sort using each element random number
    .sort(([a], [b]) => a - b)

    // Return back to an array of values
    .map(entry => entry[1])

What I like about it is the simplicity of the algorithm, assign a random number to each element, then sort.

The swap is a bit harder to visualize I feel and when I have to produce it from nothing I can come up with this one with more confidence, I think it's very clear what it does, and I like that it's not inplace too, most of my suffles are on small arrays so this works great for my usecases.

I still wish we had a shuffle method built-in

Answer 64

Community says arr.sort((a, b) => 0.5 - Math.random()) isn't 100% random!
yes! I tested and recommend do not use this method!

let arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
arr.sort((a, b) => 0.5 - Math.random());

But I am not sure. So I Write some code to test !...You can also Try ! If you are interested enough!

let data_base = []; 
for (let i = 1; i <= 100; i++) { // push 100 time new rendom arr to data_base!
  data_base.push(
    [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].sort((a, b) => {
      return  Math.random() - 0.5;     // used community banned method!  :-)      
    })
  );
} // console.log(data_base);  // if you want to see data!
let analysis = {};
for (let i = 1; i <= 6; i++) {
  analysis[i] = Array(6).fill(0);
}
for (let num = 0; num < 6; num++) {
  for (let i = 1; i <= 100; i++) {
    let plus = data_base[i - 1][num];
    analysis[`${num + 1}`][plus-1]++;
  }
}
console.log(analysis); // analysed result 

In 100 different random arrays. (my analysed result)

{ player> 1   2   3  4   5   6
   '1': [ 36, 12, 17, 16, 9, 10 ],
   '2': [ 15, 36, 12, 18, 7, 12 ],
   '3': [ 11, 8, 22, 19, 17, 23 ],
   '4': [ 9, 14, 19, 18, 22, 18 ],
   '5': [ 12, 19, 15, 18, 23, 13 ],
   '6': [ 17, 11, 15, 11, 22, 24 ]
}  
// player 1 got > 1(36 times),2(15 times),...,6(17 times)
// ... 
// ...
// player 6 got > 1(10 times),2(12 times),...,6(24 times)

As you can see It is not that much random ! soo... do not use this method!

---

If you test multiple times.You would see that player 1 got (number 1) so many times!
and player 6 got (number 6) most of the times!

Answer 65

Shuffling array using recursion JS.

Not the best implementation but it's recursive and respect immutability.

const randomizer = (array, output = []) => {
    const arrayCopy = [...array];
    if (arrayCopy.length > 0) {    
        const idx = Math.floor(Math.random() * arrayCopy.length);
        const select = arrayCopy.splice(idx, 1);
        output.push(select[0]);
        randomizer(arrayCopy, output);
    }
    return output;
};

Answer 66

I like to share one of the million ways to solve this problem =)

function shuffleArray(array = ["banana", "ovo", "salsicha", "goiaba", "chocolate"]) {
const newArray = [];
let number = Math.floor(Math.random() * array.length);
let count = 1;
newArray.push(array[number]);

while (count < array.length) {
    const newNumber = Math.floor(Math.random() * array.length);
    if (!newArray.includes(array[newNumber])) {
        count++;
        number = newNumber;
        newArray.push(array[number]);
    }
}

return newArray;

}

Answer 67

here with simple while loop

 function ShuffleColor(originalArray) {
        let shuffeledNumbers = [];
        while (shuffeledNumbers.length <= originalArray.length) {
            for (let _ of originalArray) {
                const randomNumb = Math.floor(Math.random() * originalArray.length);
                if (!shuffeledNumbers.includes(originalArray[randomNumb])) {
                    shuffeledNumbers.push(originalArray[randomNumb]);
                }
            }
            if (shuffeledNumbers.length === originalArray.length)
                break;
        }
        return shuffeledNumbers;
    }
const colors = [
    '#000000',
    '#2B8EAD',
    '#333333',
    '#6F98A8',
    '#BFBFBF',
    '#2F454E'
]
ShuffleColor(colors)

Answer 68

Using sort method and Math method :

var arr =  ["HORSE", "TIGER", "DOG", "CAT"];
function shuffleArray(arr){
  return arr.sort( () => Math.floor(Math.random() * Math.floor(3)) - 1)  
}

// every time it gives random sequence
shuffleArr(arr);
// ["DOG", "CAT", "TIGER", "HORSE"]
// ["HORSE", "TIGER", "CAT", "DOG"]
// ["TIGER", "HORSE", "CAT", "DOG"]

Answer 69

//doesn change array
Array.prototype.shuffle = function () {
    let res = [];
    let copy = [...this];

    while (copy.length > 0) {
        let index = Math.floor(Math.random() * copy.length);
        res.push(copy[index]);
        copy.splice(index, 1);
    }

    return res;
};

let a=[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9];
console.log(a.shuffle());

Answer 70

$=(m)=>console.log(m);

//----add this method to Array class 
Array.prototype.shuffle=function(){
  return this.sort(()=>.5 - Math.random());
};

$([1,65,87,45,101,33,9].shuffle());
$([1,65,87,45,101,33,9].shuffle());
$([1,65,87,45,101,33,9].shuffle());
$([1,65,87,45,101,33,9].shuffle());
$([1,65,87,45,101,33,9].shuffle());

Answer 71

A functional solution using Ramda.

const {map, compose, sortBy, prop} = require('ramda')

const shuffle = compose(
  map(prop('v')),
  sortBy(prop('i')),
  map(v => ({v, i: Math.random()}))
)

shuffle([1,2,3,4,5,6,7])