Generate random words

Question

apple, mango, papaya, banana, guava, pineapple - How to generate these words randomly (one by one) using c# ? Please help me to generate the words randomly from the list of words I have..

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 10:35

5

Random rnd = new Random();
string GetRandomFruit()
{
    string[] fruits = new string[] { "apple", "mango", "papaya", "banana", "guava", "pineapple" };
    return fruits[rnd.Next(0,fruits.Length)];
}

answered Sep 05 '12 at 10:35

L.B

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Am I right in thinking that Sasi wanted a permutation algorithm, rather than a random selection with replacement? – Phillip Ngan Sep 05 '12 at 10:39
2

@Phillip IMO could be interpreted either way - OP isn't clear. – StuartLC Sep 05 '12 at 10:42

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 10:36

4

You can get "random sorting" with LINQ's OrderBy method and using Guids

var words = new [] {"apple", "mango", "papaya", "banana", "guava", "pineapple"};
var wordsInRandomOrder = words.OrderBy(i => Guid.NewGuid());

foreach(var word in wordsInRandomOrder)
{
    Console.WriteLine(word);
}

The following foreach will give you each item once from the words array in a random order.

answered Sep 05 '12 at 10:36

nemesv

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I like your solution! Except Sasi indicated C#-2 in the tags. – Phillip Ngan Sep 05 '12 at 10:44

Nitin Vijay · Answer 3 · 2012-09-05T10:50:39.170

3

you can write the following code.

string[] fruits = new string[] { "apple", "mango", "papaya", "banana", "guava", "pineapple" };
Console.WriteLine(fruits[new Random().Next(0, fruits.Length)]);

edited Sep 05 '12 at 10:50

answered Sep 05 '12 at 10:41

Nitin Vijay

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Have you tried this? Creating a new `Random()` could seed with the same seed and result in the same output. – StuartLC Sep 05 '12 at 10:46

spender · Answer 4 · 2012-09-05T11:15:20.640

You can use Fisher-Yates to do an in place shuffle of an array:

static class ArrayMethods
{
    private static readonly Random rng = new Random();
    public static void Shuffle<T>(IList<T> list)
    {
      var r = rng;
      var len = list.Count;
      for(var i = len-1; i >= 1; --i)
      {
          var j = r.Next(i);
          var tmp = list[i];
          list[i] = list[j];
          list[j] = tmp;
      }

    }
}

as follows:

var arr = new[]{
  "apple", 
  "mango", 
  "papaya", 
  "banana", 
  "guava", 
  "pineapple"
};
ArrayMethods.Shuffle(arr);
foreach(var item in arr)
    //print 'em out

Generate random words

4 Answers4

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