How do I randomise a list of variables

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Hi,

I have basically a list of string variables in the order of this below. What i am trying to do is basically randomise one of these strings with a method or something, i have heard of some randomise methods but nothing to do with this.

C#

String a;
String b;
String c;
String d;
String e;
String f;
String g;
String h;
String i;

thanks, and i look forward to hearing back from one of you guys.

Posted 27-Jan-14 7:50am

Member 9665875

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Jan-14 14:07pm

First of all, this is not a list. :-)
—SA

Matt T Heffron 28-Jan-14 13:15pm

This is not clearly defined.
You have 9 independent string variables.
Do you want to:
1) Choose the value of one of these variables at random and then do something with that string, or
2) Use all 9 values of the string variables in a random permutation
Possibly doing either of the above in a loop.
(Note that doing #1 9 times in a loop is not the same as #2, it may not return all 9 values, some may be returned multiple times.)
Please use "Improve question" above to add clarification.

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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter · Answer 1 · 2014-01-27T07:57:00

Solution 1

Create an array where index 0 is for a and 8 is for i. Now randomize a number between 0 to 8 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.random(v=vs.110).aspx[^]). Pick the variable at the new index...

Posted 27-Jan-14 7:57am

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter

Rahul VB · Answer 2 · 2014-01-27T08:16:00

Solution 2

You can use random class for this purpose
Look at the code below, its a little crude, but should give you a basic idea:

C#

string[] s = new string[] {"a","b","c","d","e","f","g","h","i" };
           Random rnd = new Random();

           int i = 0;
           do
           {
               Console.WriteLine("Hit a key .....");
               Console.ReadLine();
               Console.WriteLine(s[rnd.Next(s.Length)]);

           } while (i < s.Length);

Look at this code also, i have tried another scenario:

C#

string s = "abcdefghi";

           Random rnd = new Random();
           int i = 0;
           do
           {
               Console.WriteLine("Hit a key .....");
               Console.ReadLine();
               Console.WriteLine(s.Substring(rnd.Next(s.Length),1));
                i++;

           } while (i < s.Length);

In the first code i have taken a string[] and in the next code i have taken a single string:

[Agent_Spock]

Basically, random class is used to get a random number between any 2 numbers as shown in the above example.

Thanks

Posted 27-Jan-14 8:16am

Rahul VB

Updated 28-Jan-14 5:25am

v5

Comments

hgh6484 27-Jan-14 14:28pm

S is a string array, you don't need to use '.ToString()' method in 'Console.WriteLine'.

Rahul VB 27-Jan-14 14:31pm

I am sorry brother, my bad. I have this bad habit of writing ToString() every where. :). Solution improved again.

hgh6484 27-Jan-14 14:42pm

now it's perfect answer.

Rahul VB 27-Jan-14 14:45pm

Thanks brother

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 27-Jan-14 15:55pm

Very redundant code, in terms of the object "s". It could be just one string s = "abcdef...", but it should better be just integer from, say, 0x21 to some maximum, converted to char code point. Besides, your code creates only one-character strings. OP did not explain what's expected for "random" string, but I cannot believe that one-character string is assumed...
—SA

Rahul VB 28-Jan-14 1:28am

Sir please explain the term "redundant code",i have heard about this term a lot of times. Just give me time i will also post another code too. I have added another code, kindly review it.

Thanks and regards

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 28-Jan-14 1:36am

Please see the word "redundant" in some dictionary, and "redundancy" — in Wikipedia. In this case, I mean that you put more code and create more objects and take more memory than it is needed, make things a bit more complex then they have to be, too...
First, you put array of string where one string would do (I hope you understand why, don't you?), and then, the "s" object is not really needed. You can take StringBuilder and append random number converted to char; it would be the shortest code making random strings with some arbitrary or random length (not 1-character, as you demonstrated)...
I did not down-vote your code, anyway...
—SA

Rahul VB 28-Jan-14 1:42am

Thanks a ton. Now i understand redundancy in terms of coding. Yes i agree about the "s" object. More and more study is required on my part, my bad. And Sir, i request you to down vote the answer at any point if its not up to the mark. I don't want any one to accept a wrong code as a solution. Please keep enlightening me. I have improvised the solution, kindly have a look.

Thanks

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 28-Jan-14 1:49am

Great. Please read on redundancy on computer science, and also this; this is very non-trivial and important matter; it's good to compare with other meanings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundancy.
—SA

Rahul VB 28-Jan-14 1:57am

Definitely Sir. I just hope that what ever answer i post, you enlighten me.

Thanks a ton,

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 28-Jan-14 2:12am

I cannot promise that... :-)
Good luck,
—SA

Rahul VB 28-Jan-14 2:19am

Ok Sir, no problem. Take care :-)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 28-Jan-14 1:37am

And mind you, the term "redundancy" is very important in computer science, so absolutely every developer should learn about it.
—SA

Rahul VB 28-Jan-14 11:59am

Thanks Agent Spock.